| Trapped Inn will first lure you in with its ingenious setting, gorgeous photography and fantastic overall production. Then it will ensnare you with its mysterious hold as it sort of vacillates between relationship dynamics and science fiction thriller. Not too dissimilar to the mysterious mist moving from the mountains over the pool water keeping people trapped inside and killing the unlucky ones and stupid ones. | | 2024
Directed by: Leah Sturgis
Screenplay by: Leah Sturgis
Starring: Matt Rife, Robert Palmer Watkins, Brielle Grearson, Brian Gross
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The setting is an inn in a remote village in the Pyrenees mountains in Andorra. A location perfect for altitude training for cyclists and other endurance sports. A US cycling team has just arrived for a couple weeks of training and team bonding. The inn is designed for just that purpose. Right off the bat, the setting and the photography of Andorra and its winding roads and fog through the mountains, is perfect. The production value is extremely high and the filmmakers know what they’re doing.
One day into their training camp, and half the team is missing, the inn owners are missing, and the news reporter is suggesting a serial killer is on the loose. Or it’s a virus. But one thing is certain, everyone is to stay inside and lock their doors, as thousands upon thousands are dead all over the world.
That mysterious set-up with an unknown villain works well for this film. What doesn’t work so well is that most characters are dead in the first 20 or so minutes. The very long middle part of the movie gets drawn out ad infinitum as the movie is setting up the dynamics of the four remaining characters trapped in a house together. These are not complicated character dynamics and you’re left waiting and waiting for the movie to do something more interesting.
Allusions to the COVID-19 pandemic are obvious and the resolution to the movie makes it clear which political side the filmmakers lean towards. On one hand, it’s not inherently political, but on the other hand, it’s impossible not to read a few lines any other way. I did however (despite the likelihood that we have opposite political views), like the ending, it fits with everything that came before it, and it’s a satisfying conclusion to the mysterious premise.
At the beginning a lot of the acting can seem over-the-top, but it’s also a very extreme situation they’ve been put in, so while I still think there’s a lot of amateur acting on display here, I can let it slide. The lead actor, comedian Matt Rife, is particularly good. He really grows into his character and by the end just commands the screen. It’s the definition of a lived-in performance since it gets better with every scene, every passing day, week, month.
There’s a lot to like in Trapped Inn, but it does get weird, very slow, and the ending could be a little polarizing – I suspect most people will like or appreciate the ending since it does fit the movie in both tone and message.
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