The Ghoulish Plot: Tess is in Detroit for a job interview and has rented an AirBNB for her stay. She arrives late at night to discover that somebody else is already in the rental and appears to have also booked the place. Initially creeped out, they arrange for Tess to sleep in the bedroom and he’ll stay on the couch. Then she realizes that somebody opened her door at night…then she finds a secret passage in the basement. THEN they find even more secrets and find out who…or what…is coming out of the passageways.

The house is owned by a scumbag actor who bought it as an investment property, but his inability to stop being a sex pest to costars has left him in need of money, so he flies to Detroit to inspect the place before selling it, and then finds himself being sucked into the situation.

This one is fairly new (released in 2022) and I’d heard good things, and if I say much more about the plot it may ruin the experience for those who haven’t seen it yet. Once this one cranks into full gear it’s a freight train with a combination of intense dread and jump scares, and it still manages to pack in a little bit of a social message (like all great horror flicks) even when you’re watching somebody’s head go kerblooey. A surprise for me, this one may find its way into the regular rotation of horror flicks for October in the future.

The Scariest Part of the Movie: are we STILL portraying Detroit as a rundown blighted town? I know this was released in 2022, so it was probably shot in 2021 and conceived of pre-Covid, but it’s getting silly to see downtown Detroit portrayed in media (and by Presidential candidates) as this rotting hellhole, then you go to downtown Detroit for real and it’s packed stadiums and bars and people in those stupid pedaly-bars and hip restaurants. Catch up, gang.

Spookiness factor: you think the movie is gonna be one thing and then it goes in a completely different direction. Then it goes in yet ANOTHER direction and forces you to reckon with a shitbag character played by somebody who is typically nice, and then it changes directions again. It keeps you guessing, a great combo for horror.

Rating: 8 out of 10 Laffy Taffys