Rent The Lodgers (2017)

Spoilers ... - The Lodgers review by NP

Ireland, early 1920s. Twins Rachael (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner) are twins cursed to live their lives alone in a magnificently gothic mansion, lest they break the rules set by a mysterious presence from generations past. This presence insists that no-one else may enter the dwelling, and that they must be in their beds by midnight. And something mysterious exists beneath the trapdoor.

The twins are unfortunately rather defined by their current characteristics – Rachel is headstrong and sensible, and Edward is weird and more subservient to the presence. Apart from that, there’s not a great deal in the script or dialogue that allows us to get close to them.

The arrival of one-legged Sean (Eugene Simon), a World War 1 veteran who has returned to a village that now spurns him, finds himself attracted to Rachel, and that the feeling is mutual causes an imbalance in her ordered life. David Bradley makes a welcome appearance as solicitor Bermingham, reluctantly on hand to deliver bad news about the twins’ financial state.

That hoary old cliché ‘style over substance’ may well apply to ‘The Lodgers’. Filmed in one of Ireland's most haunted houses, Loftus Hall, the story takes its time – which is something I have no problem with – but the mansion, village and surrounding locations look breath-taking. Director Brian O'Malley ensures that everything is a scenic as it can possibly be, and that the surroundings strike that perfect balance between beauty and gothic horror. A closed society, living in a resplendent land.

Whilst the atmospherics, and Edward’s strangeness – as well as Rachael’s longing to leave – are handled very effectively, actual scares are thin on the ground. When they do occur, however, they are very well handled. All in all, I really enjoyed this. An elegant, strangely tragic horror excursion.