The Terrible Two is a 2018 horror film about a married couple dealing with one year anniversary of their young daughter’s deaths.
One of the more aggravating elements of many modern horror movies is their insistence that their movie is in fact based on real events, that the people and horrors that befall them are actually true, which is of course utterly absurd. With Billy Lewis‘ latest The Terrible Two, it begins with narration that wags a finger at those movies and their false claims before going on to say that while those other movies are false, the story behind this one is absolutely real. Perhaps it’s tongue-in-cheek, and maybe the filmmakers are trying to poke some fun at the trope, but like everything else about this generic low budget thriller, it’s taken far too seriously and has little to no impact in one more retread of a creepy house horror story.
We meet Albert (Reid Doyle) and Rose Poe (Cari Moskow), a young couple on the brink of starting a new life, taking a tour of a quaint family home they are about to buy, Rose pregnant and happy to be living the dream. They mention they are hoping for two children. It then cuts to a few years later and things have not panned out well. The couple are facing an anniversary, but not a happy one. It’s been a year since both their daughters died on their birthdays. Meanwhile, Rose falls into decline and begins to hear voices, leading her to the attic where she discovers a manuscript that reveals terrible secrets about the history of the house, something connected to the deaths of her girls.
So surely you’re already seeing some obvious landmarks along the road here, and The Terrible Two doesn’t make too many strides to steer clear of them, aligning itself with plenty of genre standards. Before the inevitable chaotic finale, things ever so slowly build with increasingly more troubling hallucinations and odd behaviors that suggest they are not alone within these walls, as Rose experiences all kinds of conventional creepy. Mixing in a bit of Christian guilt, the story is, despite the premise, oddly lethargic, barely sustaining any momentum as it trudges uncompromisingly on its predictable journey.
The problems begin with performances, as the characters simply are not convincing, early weirdness in the house, such as a rolling baby stroller and demonic faces seemingly have no emotional effect on them, scenes simply ending with no punch whatsoever. Lewis, in his feature debut, can’t create any suspense despite a few visually compelling moments, the whole thing tragically dull. Things just scuffle along like the crew are working off a short laundry list of must haves to get to the end, compounded by a lack of score with any atmospheric presence whatsoever.
Low budget movies deserve a minor pass for their limitations, yet many have redefined entire genres and have had permanent impact, though surely it’s unfair to expect that from them all. However, movies like The Terrible Two are nothing but filler and unfortunately offer no innovation or reason to exist, just see-through retreads of already barely-there stories. It’s too bad this couldn’t have at least tried for something different.