Treehouse is good enough to be disappointing. That counts for something, right? It's got a really strong first act, which does an excellent job establishing the relationship of our hero brothers (Crawford and his younger brother Killian) and the world they live in. For the first half, Treehouse reminded me (in a good way) a lot of the coming of age movies I grew up with in the 80's - it's a world where adults are present, but are very peripheral. We experience everything through the brother's eyes, and during the setup of the film it works very well.
Anyways: It's the night of the big town fair (or something). But we find out (actually we see, in the pre-credit sequence) that a teenage girl and her young brother have gone missing, taken by some unseen force. The sheriff says something along the lines of "the disappearances have started again" and is acting all cryptic, so the festival gets cancelled. Crawford and Killian are bummed, but they aren't going to let that ruin their night. So they go out into the woods to party, but when their friends don't show they say "eff-it" and light off some fireworks on their own. But one firework illuminates a treehouse high above the forest floor, and being rascals, they have to go check it out.
And what do they find? Elizabeth, the young woman who went missing at the outset of the film. She's injured her feet (broken glass + bare feet = bad news), and says "they" chased her up there... and are down there waiting for her. And now, "they" are waiting for all three of them. Crawford decides he should go for help... and we spend the rest of the movie (mostly) with Killian and Elizabeth as the horror unfolds.
Warning: I can't help but get kind of SPOILERY here, so... sorry. I think Treehouse is a well-made film and worth seeing, and I suspect that some people will like it for precisely the same things I didn't. Maybe you are one of those people! So if you were ever inclined to see this, stop reading now, I guess.
So my big issue? I feel like the film is sort of misleading re: the Big Bad. They way it's referred to in the beginning (all ominous and in hushed tones) makes you think this is a sort of ongoing problem, or the town is cursed, or something. Maybe I was just bringing my own baggage to it, but I was thinking there was going to be some sort of supernatural cause to the problems, and that just wasn't the case. (I mean, I want *every* movie villain to be Bigfoot, but I would've taken just about any cryptid over what we actually get.) Plus, when you get to the reveal, it just makes the kids fighting it/them seem a little unrealistic. I either want to *totally* suspend disbelief (i.e. fighting Bigfoot) or have it play as realistically as possible. Here, you end up in kind of a gray area.
Other than that, I guess my main gripe was the characters and perhaps the acting once the S. hits the F. Especially when we get down to Killian and Elizabeth. Again, Treehouse tries to be kind of realistic; it's a gritty film in a lot of ways. Sometimes the actors respond to the violent situations honestly, and sometimes they get into "action hero quip mode." It's hard to say if other actors would have been able to pull it off... overall I'd say J. Michael Trautmann (Killian) and Dana Melanie (Elizabeth) are just okay. (Although to be fair, Trautmann is pretty darn good as a disaffected youth before things get into action/horror territory.)
But those gripes aside, Treehouse is a pretty solid film. It just looks nice, and has some good, tense moments (especially during the chunk of the film when they are stuck in the treehouse). There are a few scenes of gore that are okay - the broken glass made me wince - but it's never shocking and certainly isn't the point of the film. The most important thing? You get an engaging story. Even though I wasn't into the reveal, I at least cared about what happened. If you liked that reveal, I'd reckon Treehouse would work like gangbusters.
I would recommend this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment