Held (2021)

​Directed by Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing
Written by Jill Awbrey
 
Starring:
​Jill Awbrey, Bart Johnson, Travis Cluff 
 
Budget: No Data                                             Box Office: $142.2K
 
IMDb 5.2/10                           Rotten Tomatoes 37%                        Metacritic No Data

Well, judging by the looks of things on the other review sites this film did not impress many people in the film critic world.  However, I thought that this was a pretty good film.  We start with finding out that married couple Henry and Emma are in the midst of a heaping dose of marital discord.  While no marriage is perfect, theirs is seemingly rocky at best.  They decide to try for a new start by planning a romantic trip to a rental vacation house.  They think the time away from the regular hustle and bustle of life and being allowed to focus on each other will be a huge step in the right direction in healing their broken marriage.
 
They arrive at a beautiful home with all kinds of lovely amenities and immediately start to try to make themselves comfortable, awkward as they feel the situation may be.  Each seems to be struggling with their own demons.  But both seem willing to make a true effort to repair their relationship.  But things are not as they seem.  Once they are in the house they soon find that they are not necessarily alone.  Shortly beyond this discovery, they realize that they are locked in and trapped in this rental vacation home.  But that’s not the worst part for this estranged couple.
 
Besides being locked in a strange house there is a voice that is speaking to them through the house intercom system.  They discover that they are being watched by someone via cameras set up throughout the whole house.  The voice is deep and intimidating.  It dictates to Henry and Emma what they are to do when they are to do it, and how they are to do whatever the task commanded might be.
 
Henry and Emma soon figure out that they will have to work together if they are going to make it home from this vacation alive.
 
THE END

I liked this film a lot.  I’m not sure why the professional critics gave it such bad scores but the average viewer, from what I can tell online, seemed to enjoy it.  I felt like the film was well written with a relatable plotline and that the actors, although not known to me before this film, did an above-average job in portraying their characters on the big screen.  The fact that the plot was something practically anyone can relate to makes it not mundane in my opinion but actually kind of smart and genius.  You want your viewers to be able to relate to your characters if nothing else.
 
Plus, the film had an excellent suspense element all the way through.  The film moves at a steady pace and that makes it easy to keep things interesting by having something new happening in almost every scene.  There were also some things that one might not expect that add flair and punch to the impact of the film.
 
I think suspense, thriller, and horror lovers would dig this film.  It’s certainly one that I am going to be watching more than just the one time.  I’m not sure yet but, it could be one of those movies where you don’t catch every little detail the first time watching it and so if you view it multiple times you get a full understanding of what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish and how they were trying to do that.  Worth watching at least one time though.  I’d tell that to anyone who digs our genres, ya know?
 

RATINGS
4.5/5 Stars