Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Travis Greene
Starring: Alisha Soper, William Gabriel Grier, Aly Trasher, Eddy Acosta, Tim Simek, Roseanna Limeres, Jenny Tran, Laura Buckles, Patrick Joseph
Rieger
The modern phenomenon of Air BnB style short term rentals has given
rise to a new sub-genre of horror in which protagonists find themselves
endangered after renting a seemingly idyllic home for a weekend – see
the likes of Barbarian,
The Rental,
Superhost
etc. A common plot device in such movies sees the rental being
apparently double-booked, leading to tension between two different
parties.
That's the template director Travis Greene has adopted for his
feature debut 8 Found Dead. What marks his film from the crowded market is the non-linear
storytelling he employs. Three different timelines are woven together to
keep us on our toes, but you can't help but wonder if this device is
simply polishing a movie that's otherwise less than the sum of its
parts.
After a prologue in which property host Jessie (Jenny Tran)
arrives to clean up after her most recent guests at the secluded desert
home she rents out and finds an unwanted surprise, we're introduced to
the property's next set of renters. Sam (Alisha Soper) is an
online influencer who has booked the house to break the news that she's
been diagnosed with Cancer to her boyfriend Dwayne (William Gabriel Grier) and their friends Carrie (Aly Trasher) and Ricky (Eddy Acosta).
When Sam and Dwayne arrive at the property they're surprised to find it
currently occupied by an elderly couple – the hippyish Richard (Tim Simek) and Liz (Roseanna Limeres) – who claim to have booked the home
themselves. There's some messy explanation about why neither couple can
produce confirmation of their booking due to a lack of wifi, after which
a standoff begins as both couples refuse to give way. We then cut to
Carrie and Ricky arriving some time later to be similarly greeted by
Richard and Liz, who again claim to have booked the property. Curiously,
they deny having ever seen Sam and Dwayne. Once again a standoff ensues.
In a third timeline we follow married but about to be divorced cops
Blake (Laura Buckles) and Bobby (Patrick Joseph Rieger) as
they are called to a disturbance at the same property.
We've seen a lot of indie horror movies recently that pit male and
female characters against one another in a battle of the sexes.
8 Found Dead does something similar but here it's a
generational battle. While the two millennial couples are uptight and
concerned with how they're perceived, the boomer antagonists have no
filter, with Liz openly flirting with the men while Richard delights in
winding up the younger folk with his politically incorrect views,
knowing his advanced age means the younger men aren't going to punch his
lights out. 8 Found Dead is most compelling in its middle
section when it settles down into this awkward conflict, with Limeres
and Simek genuinely unsettling in their roles.
It's when the violence kicks in later that things get messy. The
physical conflict simply isn't as interesting as the psychological one
that initially hooked us, plus the non-linear timeline means we already
know the fates of certain characters. The final act leads us to ask some
awkward logistical questions, such as what happened to the vehicles that
various characters drove to the property in question? There's also a
bizarre coda that hints at a prequel, but it's so half-baked that I
didn't know what I was supposed to make of it. Kudos to Greene and
screenwriter Jonathan Buchanan for trying something different in
terms of storytelling structure, but you may be left wondering if
8 Found Dead might have been more successful working
within the traditional parameters of its stagey setup.