Day 29

Trespassers (2019)

Directed by Orson Oblowitz

When a group of friends(?) head out for a fun weekend of drinking, drugs, and attempts at sex at a rented house, they find their night interrupted by a mysterious stranger of unknown intention. When things go from bad to worse the group finds themselves between a rock and a hard place as they deal with their interpersonal issues – as well as some cartel hitmen. Trespassers is one of the stranger movies on this list because even though I’ve seen it referred to as a slasher movie in several places, that aspect of the movie is such a small part of what is going on. What takes the main stage is the interpersonal drama going on between this motley cast, and although I don’t necessarily like where all the characters ended up, the character premises were pretty neat and unique. The acting is mostly pretty good, with a special shout out to Angela Trimbur, who I know best as Madison “The Dress Bitch” from The Good Place, who plays the lead and does a great job with an emotionally complex role. The problem with Trespassers is, unfortunately, the story.

I like the premise of Trespassers, home invasion slashers can be fun and, if handled correctly, there’s no reason why cartel goons couldn’t be decent villains. The problem is that cartel assassins are, surprise surprise, really good at killing people, so any confrontation between these two groups should be over in seconds, and the movie knows that best we’re over halfway in before the cartel guys really show up and once they do, well, they don’t do all that much. There’s some intrigue and a little fighting, but most of this movie feels like we’re stalling for time because this story does not need to be feature length. There’s a really great short film hidden in here, especially with some of the excellent visuals they managed to get, but Trespassers feels flabby and padded, which sadly kills any tension the filmmakers managed to build.  

Two final things; the first is a minor minor spoiler, but it is also a reminder that, if you are a white person, and someone dies in your house due to an accident or a matter of self-defense, you should call the police immediately, they’ll probably believe you and you’re up shit creek without a paddle if you don’t tell the cops and then they find out later. Secondly, this movie is very similar in both basic plot structure and character setup to a movie that came out this year called The Rental, watch that instead of this.