Held

A watchable thriller a bit in the style of Funny Games, but it lacks bite. A couple is isolated in a luxury smart-house and terrorized by the Voice, which more or less gives them tasks. It's a shame that the tasks are stuff like cook dinner for your husband, open the door first as a man, etc., so it gets boring at times and unfortunately, there is no violence. As a psychological pressure on the victims, it may be alright, but for my taste, it was sometimes too light and soft. It gets to average thanks to the final twist and the idea, which is unexpected and definitely interestingly devised, so at least there's something, but I probably won't remember this film in a week. 5.5. (04/10/2021)

Wow, what a shame that this theme or concept wasn't put in the hands of some directorial genre visionary instead of the two chaps who’d only made The Gallows and The Gallows Act II before, who, unsurprisingly, took a very immature approach. Add more style and psychological depth and caress the viewer more against the grain, and we could have had a Get Out type of hit. And I'm not exaggerating, although for most of the runtime the film feels like a trip back fifteen years, to the days of horror torture porn, when various psychopaths kept people in confined spaces for bizarre reasons and forced them to perform tasks under the threat of violence, this is something more interesting and clever at its core. It's just not tight enough, the potential was much higher. Still, it’s watchable throughout. The rating is between three and four stars. (04/09/2021)