Lair Movie Review

PLOT: When an associate claims a demonic force made him kill his family, a fraudulent ghost hunter conducts an experiment on an unwitting family in an effort to prove the existence of the supernatural.

REVIEW: There is a very intriguing idea at the core of writer/director Adam Ethan Crow’s supernatural horror movie Lair (watch it HERE), but for me that idea wasn’t brought to the screen in the most interesting way possible. A substantial amount of the 99 minute running time had gone by before I was really drawn into the story – and getting through the first 20 minutes of the film was especially rough. That’s because we spend most of those minutes with a really repugnant character: fraudulent ghost hunter Steven Caramore, played by Corey Johnson in a way that makes sure this guy is as difficult to tolerate as possible. Caramore’s associate Ben Dollarhyde (Oded Fehr in a very brief appearance) has been jailed for murdering his family, and Dollarhyde claims he carried out the murders while under the influence of a demonic force unleashed by an artifact he and Caramore got their hands on during their ghost hunting scams.

There are plenty more artifacts where that one came from, so Caramore decides to conduct an experiment in hopes of proving that supernatural forces exist so he can help Dollarhyde avoid prison, and ideally profit from it as well. He has inherited a building in London, so he and his buddy Ola (Kashif O’Connor) put some hidden cameras and some allegedly cursed items in there, then rent the space to a family. From across the hall, Caramore watches the family’s every move, looking closely for any paranormal activity. Watching get all of this set up, I just felt that it would have been more interesting to learn about his voyeurism and the reason for it later in the film, instead of following him every step of the way.

We finally get to spend some time with other people when Maria Engel (Aislinn De’ath) moves into the building with her daughters Joey (Anya Newall) and Lilly (Lara Mount) and her girlfriend Carly Cortes (Alana Wallace). But watching this bunch isn’t a great relief, because you have to endure a lot of relationship drama between Maria and Carly. I was getting more desperate for evil spirits to show up than Caramore was. Thankfully, they finally arrive – and Caramore has unleashed something quite nasty on this family. Something that will outright murder people and leave blood splattered all over the place. That’s the kind of paranormal activity I like to see in movies, so this was when the movie finally engaged me.

The second half of Lair features enough horror and intense emotions (including some pay-off to all the relationship drama we had to watch), it gradually started to feel that sitting through the first half had been worth it. I was not getting much enjoyment out of the movie for a long stretch, then it shifted gears and when the end credits started rolling I felt like I had been adequately entertained.

As unpleasant as Caramore is to watch, Johnson plays the hell out of him, so I have to commend him for that. I can’t say I liked any of the characters in this movie, but they were all played well. This is the screen debut for Anya Newall, and she makes a strong impression as the teen heroine who butts heads with her parental figures in addition to having to deal with, and try to protect her little sister from, a murderous entity.

With some tweaks and re-structuring, Lair might have turned out better than it is, but the way Crow told his story worked out well enough in the end. It’s not a bad way to spend 99 minutes.

Lair is receiving a digital and VOD release in North America on November 9th.

Lair

AVERAGE

6