Posted in: Movies, Review | Tagged: Andrew Ellis, doctor who, Ian Kenny, Jake Curran, maisie williams, Rita Tushingham, rlje films, sylvester mccoy, the owners

The Owners: Well-Intentioned, But Should Have Foreclosed [REVIEW]

When it comes to horror films, one of the biggest selling points is finding a character who's likable the audience can get behind. The film's star Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), who plays Mary, barely fits that category as someone who gets dragged into her circumstance by her boyfriend Nathan (Ian Kenny) in a heist-gone-wrong. Nathan and his two friends Terry (Andrew Ellis) and Gaz (Jake Curran) scope out an elderly couple's house to rob them of their valuables. As the three are stuck, Mary gets roped into being part of the group to help incapacitate the couple, Richard and Ellen Huggins, played by Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham, respectively.

Unlikable Characters of The Owners

Mary gets caught in the middle as an unwilling participant. Her friends terrorize the couple before a crisis of conscience allows the couple to take control where somehow even worse things happen because you now retaliate, and this is a "horror" film. As we go through the gamut of how detestable each character is, we see Williams' Mary as a very thin layer of meat in a crazy sandwich. I mean, her friends participated in the most horrific things atypical of desperations and depravity, but still takes "their" side when the couple starts their "revenge." The unfortunate thing is to describe the film, which most can already deduce the plot within its trailer is about spoiling about 70 percent of it at least. When you know what's going to happen for most of the film, what's the point of going through the remaining 30 percent, especially on a genre that's predicated on suspense and built up? This isn't Psycho, and we're not recreating Alfred Hitchcock here.

Based on the French graphic novel, "Une Nuit De Pleine Lune" by Hermann and Yves H., the film is directed by Julius Berg and co-written by Mathieu Gompel. Ultimately, it feels like it would have made a better episode of The Twilight Zone than a full 90-minute feature film. Williams' is the film's biggest strength, and McCoy does a commendable job playing the two-faced holier-than-thou controlling doctor. The Blu-Ray features a behind-the-scenes featurette that shows the humble home-turned-to-a-house-of-horrors. Doctor Who fans might find a little surreal to see the seventh Doctor (McCoy) and Ashildr (Williams) at it, but might be worth the novelty. Otherwise, RLJE's The Owners just isn't my cup of tea. It is available on digital, Blu-Ray, and on-demand.

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