Free to a Bad Home (2023)

Free to a Bad Home (2023). 1h 20m

“Finding a strange box while on a walk, a woman and her boyfriend find the items inside the box might have more cursed backstories than they were led to believe.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Good Stor(ies): Ryan-After arriving at a dark and quiet house, a would-be robber tries to snatch some precious jewels inside but finds a strange woman tied up inside that makes his life troubled. This one really couldu0026#39;ve been more fun than it is but is still slightly disappointing. The fact that thereu0026#39;s an immensely creepy and chilling atmosphere here in the first half where itu0026#39;s mostly built around the idea of the loner going through the pitch-black house in the middle of the night with no light and very little noise makes for a pretty fun setup to whatu0026#39;s going on. As it leads to her reveal later on and what happens between them once he realizes whatu0026#39;s going on with her. Still, that leaves large sections of the segment with nothing happening and very little action for its payoff which downgrades this one considerably.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Bad Stor(ies): Amy-Heading back to her childhood home, a womanu0026#39;s attempts at reconnecting with herself are disturbed by the arrival of her friend and the secrets that come with it. Overall, this was a decent enough start to things but still isnu0026#39;t that great. The atmosphere present here, especially with the simplistic setup here to utilize that, makes for a rather intriguing start as things escalate from loss of time and strange bruises to waking up in strange places unsure of whatu0026#39;s going on which leads to the shocking discovery of her purpose for visiting. The problems start with her friend arriving and starting their relationship which just leads to no end of bland babbling between them that goes nowhere and doesnu0026#39;t really generate much of a genre atmosphere here leading to a confusing state of events as to why it was included after a solid start so itu0026#39;s one that takes way too long to get where itu0026#39;s going and doesnu0026#39;t have much going for it beyond the atmosphere present.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJulia-Heading out with her girlfriends, a group of women on a road trip to a party in the middle of nowhere only to find their hostsu0026#39; eccentric behavior might be their undoing. This was another massive disappointment that really doesnu0026#39;t have much going for it. About the only thing to like here is the series of outlandish and outright murderous behavior of their hosts who are quite fun and generate some solid chasing scenes along the way. Otherwise, this one is a highly dull and lifeless effort built around the endless and utterly banal driving scenes with the group doing drugs and making small talk thatu0026#39;s excruciating to get through and really holds this one down with barely anything about it thatu0026#39;s enjoyable or makes the group likable. Even the party scenes arenu0026#39;t that impressive with the group wandering around endlessly until they arrive at the central meet-up point with the rest of the group, so itu0026#39;s pretty long to get to its good parts as well which when combined with the lackluster reveal that connects all the stories together makes this generally underwhelming.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, and drug use.”