I'm kind of sad to say it's another formulaic campy horror movie. They tried, I think. They tried to add unique elements that would set it apart but nope, it didn't happen. The foreshadowing is pretty heavy from the start and they don't deviate.
The story is that Maria takes a job at a high end hotel(?) as a housekeeper. Her first night they, well, try to kill her. The backstory is that Maria and her younger sister Asia were abused by their father, Maria shot him in kind of self defense, served time, lost track of her little sister, and took the job through deception to get her back. To summarize that - big sister Maria is there to get little sister Asia back. I don't know exactly why she had to go to these measures to do it but hey, maybe because the staff lives on-site? Dunno. Sets up the location.
That first night they do indeed try to kill her. There was a warning written on the mirror by the maintenance guy (assumed) that showed up in the shower steam but was gone when she got out of the shower. Oddly enough when they do start coming through the walls (there's a convenient hole in the wall behind the small refrigerator in the room) she pulls a very large knife out of her bag and goes to town. They've got pig faces which turn out to be masks as they chastise each other because she escaped.
That's the setup. They're chasing her through the building.
But wait - these guys heal from everything. They're incapacitated for a bit, but then they're back. The extra bit of the story is that they're all immortal. There's an exposition spouting housekeeper with a fake Irish accent you can float bowling balls on telling her everything from the moment she walked in the door.
Speaking of that. She showed up at the place saying she's the new housekeeper, using the fake name. The housekeeper asks to see her ID, then shows her in. Her cell phone is taken as a matter of procedure. She's introduced to some of the guests/residents/whatever they are that are in the lobby. She's shown her room, seeing things like the breakroom as they go by. Then she's in for the night. My logical mind wondered if the real person had already done the whole HR thing of paperwork or if that's just ignored because they're going to kill her so no need to pay her, right?
Now the chase is on. She's going to try to find her sister while she's being hunted by the immortal people who want to kill her. There's many reviews that reference Tarantino because she's barefoot through the entire movie. It's not a "Die Hard" concept where there's problems with it. She just is. So someone had a fetish or they wanted to show something that escapes my grasp.
There's many a fight and would-be kill. There's a humorous aspect of one woman's head being blown off (she brought a double barrel short shotgun too) and her eyeball wandering around on its own reporting back. So lots and lots of blood and gore, even the classic beheading with the blood spraying to the ceiling. I told you they stuck to the camp horror formula.
She finds her little sister. A very minor detail from earlier in the movie comes back to show that her little sister has decided to join them rather than be killed. The minor detail is a pair of earrings shown earlier now worn by the little sister. The woman who's place big sister took was to be her sacrifice and entry into the immortal club. Whoopsie.
The little sister is all caught up on her big sister leaving her with the abusive dad. It's not like the big sister had much choice after being put in prison for trying, and failing, to kill the abusive dad when they were on the run but hey, had to have a reason why little sister is upset. This is now part of the interactions as they both run to try to get out. Again, not really tight writing.
Big sister gets caught. They bring her up to the top level where, gasp, there's an alter to Satan/some demon. Big big surprise since the original pan down the building at the beginning of the movie shows a red window in the attic with a pentagram. Not subtle at all.
The thing here is you write your name on the pig-head-on-a-stick, make your sacrifice, do some kind of soul pledge, and you're immortal. There's a ceremony where they bring the demon to inhabit said pig head. It's "alive" and kinda nasty. It's also covered in names. There's a rather nice fluorite terminated crystal hanging from its ear as a writing implement. The fact I noticed this tells you how much the rest of the movie kept my attention.
The next setup is that little sister goes forward, writes her name, then kills herself. That seems to be unprecedented because it sets up a major fight scene. Big sister conveniently and expertly slices off the piece of skin with her sister's name on it during the fight. There's the standard hooks hanging from chains, poles set into the floor, etc. for mayhem to occur. The demon is not happy about being stuck on the stick so the housekeeper jams the pig head on her own head so big sister is fighting the housekeeper with the pig head.
Sigh.
Big sister has a lighter and lights up the housekeeper (after she's impaled on one of those handy floor poles) which also burns the pig head. That burns the names which makes the immortals, currently in various states of impalement, mortal. All fall down.
The sisters get away and the skin doesn't have the little sister's name on it. At some point one of them changed it to the big sister's name. I think it was before the fighting really started. I dunno. The skin is still there and squirming in her hand as they leave the flaming remains of the building.
I'm tired of the Satanic premise so many of these movies use. It's getting tiring. It's lazy. They can't think up something so hey, let's make them devil worshipers. Woo! High fives all around the writing table. I can't complain too much because it's part of the formula.
If you like campy horror this won't disappoint. The lead actress is better than you'd expect and I hope she gets some better roles in her near future. No one else in the thing deserves more.
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