Opening This Week: The Lodge, The Call of the Wild, Brahms: The Boy II
BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
After premiering to praise at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Lodge is finally reaching the big screen. Starring Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, and Alicia Silverstone, the horror film is being released by NEON, the studio behind the U.S. release of Parasite.
A frozen lake. A New England winter. A lodge in the middle of nowhere. The tropes at the center of the film play the perfect ingredients to plenty of stylized scares. It isn’t the horror, though, that won critics over. Keogh’s performance, in particular, earned much of the praise. For horror fans, though, the film is unsettling enough to provide dark, atmospheric thrills.
The film was originally slated to hit theaters in November 2019, but was moved by NEON to this weekend.
Opens in Fargo.
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It’s been a while since we’ve been given a film adaptation of Jack London’s 1903 classic, The Call of the Wild. In this version, produced by 20th Century Pictures, stars Harrison Ford and a CGI dog on the adventure of a lifetime.
Buck, a St. Bernard/Scotch Collie, is stolen from his California home and ends up in Yukon. A rough adventurer, John Thornton (Ford) takes Buck under his wing and Buck’s true purpose is born. The Call of the Wild is beloved for its clever narrative and feel-good inspiration.
In this new version, directed by Chris Sanders, did not follow previous versions by filming on location. Instead, most of the film was produced on sets in Los Angeles, with some exteriors in Santa Clarita. The film relies a lot on CGI and special effects, including the complete creation of Buck (actor/stunt coordinator Terry Notary stood-in for Buck during filming).
Disney’s acquisition of Fox meant the film was pushed back from its original Christmas Day 2019 release. Many film history buffs are pointing out that Twentieth Century Pictures’ last release before merging with Fox Film in 1935 was an early adaptation of The Call of the Wild. This new release marks the first film released under the newly branded 20th Century Studios.
Opens in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot.
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Katie Holmes stars in the sequel, Brahms: The Boy II, a second chapter to 2016’s The Boy. Holmes stars as Liza, the matriarch of a young family unaware of the terrifying history of a mansion in which they move. Every inch of the new estate hides secrets, most notably those of a life-like doll called Brahms.
William Brent Bell, who directed the 2016 original, returns as the director of The Boy Ii. STX Entertainment produced and distributed the film.
Few critics have been given the chance to see the film, which raises some red flags. Fans of the first film should still enjoy the lore of the Boy narrative.
Opens in Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot.
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