Psychological thriller film written, directed and produced by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot Series), based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, with some alterations in the screenplay.
First of all what called my attention was the Obama's interest in the movie that is explained by a-) He is a huge fan of the book; a-) Obviously as an ex-president he had insight into the military parts;
To those who don't know what to expect about the movie I can call it a mix of M. Night Shyamalan and Jordan Pelee with the obvious personal touch of the director based by the social-technologic chaos that we seen in Mr. Robot. Btw this was the fact that gave in most of the story to me well in the start of the movie events.
The movie basically tells what happens when a up-mid class white family goes into vacations into a Airbnb upstate NY high-class house for vacations and strange events like an oil tanker losing control and crashing into beach (hmmmm let me guess... no GPS?) and internet stops unexpectedly (hmmm let me guess cyberattacks? coup d'etat by unknow enemies????) and wild life starts to act strangely, like deer and birds (this is the MNS part, probably because of some sort of disruptive effect that I suspect in the start to be a solar flare until it mentioned only in US when I kill'd the movie plot).
The comes the J. Pelee part when a black father and daughter shows up in the house after the strange effects telling they are the ones that own the house and came back for retreat of the chaos. Yeah racial tension on.
Individually all characters have their little details of psychology and backstory which is a nice touch and well done part of the movie. And so are the acting.
I guess that my main problem is watching too much stuff - there is a point that to get a movie that introduce something unique to you, specially knowing the background of the directors and writers is something difficult to impress yourself.
Out of these plot parts the movie have some cool paranoid ideas (that actually aren't so paranoid because they would work as in the movie like Obama were advised) and a very nice soundtrack by Mac Quayle (Mr Robot, American Horror Story) and cinematography with some cool and interesting cameras shots by Tod Campbell (Stranger Things, Mr Robot, Boyhood).
Overall it isn't a bad movie - on contraire it is interesting if you don't know what to expect. Not bad, but the racial part was unnecessary imo. Even so, for me it is one of the good movies of 2023 so it win a heart too.
My score: 7.5 out of 10 / B+.
