The Owners

The new film directed by Julius Berg serves as a satisfactory but confusing alternative to the already classic genre of violent Home Invasion movies.

After producing shows like Osmosis (2019) or The Forest (2017) the francophone director Julius Berg presents his debut in the film industry with The Owners, his personal contribution to the Home Invasion Movies following the guide of its predecessors: a group of young boys will break into the wrong house and they will regret doing so.

At the beginning, the story revolves around Nathan and Terry (Ian Kenny y Andrew Ellis respectively), two friends that decide to steal the safe of an old and rich doctor and his wife with the help of Gaz (Jake Curran), a sociopath that they have just met. Nevertheless, the viewer soon finds out that the main character of the movie is Mary (Maisie Williams), girlfriend of Nathan and against the plan from the start. As she is the only one acting in a rational way in the film she becomes the personification of common sense, generating sympathy in the viewer and contributing to an increase of frustration when the story comes to an end.

The uneasiness grows in the viewer from the very start of the film due to the great interpretation of Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham: The way they talk to each other, the way they refuse to give the code that opens the safe even after the torture threats, and the ease the doctor has to manipulate the young boys, make the viewer realize that the elderly couple is are not the defensless victims that they imagined. What at the beginning is planned as a fast and easy extortion, soon will become a succession of terrible events, each of them more violent and hopeless than the last one. Even if the story of Berg is not original in its approach, it has some noticeable elements that are worth taking into consideration.

A remarkable recourse is the use of insects to indicate that something bad is happening. From the beginning of the movie, when Terry goes down the stairs to the basement looking for the safe, these animals are present and used as a narrative recourse for the director. This idea strengthens when Tushingham kills a cockroach of considerable size with her bare hands on the table. The use that the director gives to these creatures reminds of Mamá (2013) from Andy Muschietti or The Crimson Peak (2014) from Guillermo del Toro, where black moths invade the house attracted by the body decomposition. If we apply this metaphor to Berg’s film, it can be inferred that, more than to a literal decomposition, insects are drawn to the decomposition of humanity from the doctor and his wife.

Besides, moving to the realization of the film, the manipulation of the frame is used as a recourse to strengthen the atmosphere of anguish and terror. While for most part of the film we find the usual frame, from the minute 70 the frame closes having almost a perfect square. Taking into account that is the moment of the film where the viewer can see that the future of the young boys is not so bright, we find a descent into madness visually reinforced by the sensation of asphyxia and lack of air that the frame provokes.

Despite all, the magnificent interpretation of the actors and the narrative potential are eclipsed by the excessive introduction of irrelevant information. In an apparent effort to increase dramatism, too many subplots are developed in a brief period of time. Which ends up provoking a great confusion and incomprehension in the viewer. Added to this we find an abrupt ending not really satisfying, because after initiating a conflict to avoid opening the safe at all costs to see what is inside, they end up showing it in two minutes at the end of the film, not giving it more importance throughout the movie.

To sum up, despite the fact that the movie achieves what it wants, and it builds very successfully the atmosphere (something fundamental in horror movies), neither the interpretation of the actors, nor the original and surprising resources used make this movie anything beyond satisfactory. An entertaining scary movie, but disappointing if you take into account what it could have been.

Mark: 6/10

Original review: https://contraste.info/cinema/critica-the-owners-los-propietarios/