The Dwelling is a 2019 horror movie about the mysterious death of four people and the cop called in to solve the case.
After a prelude involving some old time ritualistic murders and a guy with several axes walking to cut down the tree where it was all happened, we move into the modern era and are introduced to Virgil (Colin Price). He’s a detective called in to visit a sex club where a horrific crime have left two couples killed in gruesome and mysterious ways. Cut to the previous night when Nancy (Gwenlyn Cumyn) and her boyfriend Ren (Dennis Andres) join Fred (George Krisa) and his girlfriend Sandy (Alysa King) for a night of hot sex with four consenting adults. As the night begins, Fred suggests that the girls kiss because it’s his birthday. However, when Nancy considers it, she sees Sandy appear as if all tore up and it scares her so much she puts a cork in whatever action that was going to happen. During the same night Ren wakes up and sees what he thinks is his dog, that died a long time ago. Worse, as soon as he puts his feet on the ground and starts walking toward his furry friend, a strong force begins pulling him towards the bed and that’s how our other bed buddies discover that if you leave the bed you will be killed.
The movie jumps back and forth between Virgil investigating the crime and the survivors trying to find a way off the bed. At first I found this to be kind of annoying and was wishing that the movie would just pick a focal character or plot and stay with it. Yet, things do become interesting when Sandy is able to get a hold of a phone and the only person she is able to reach is Virgil. The same cop who is investigating the very same deaths that she was a part of. Will Virgil be able to save them all in time or should they just give up and at least try and get a good night sleep?
The whole time paradox thing has been done before in many TV shows and movies, and I wouldn’t mind it so much here if the writers did something more with it. We just see Sandy speak to Virgil a few times and the only proof she sends him from the past is her name that was written on one of the bed parts. They don’t really do anything much more with it except it just being a way for the to communicate with each other and that’s all. Before the bed kills you it shows you something from your past that you tried have kept hidden. One thing that Sandy feels guilty about is the death of her last boyfriend who protected her during a mass shooting.
With all the recent gun violence that is happening in the real world today, I can’t help but think this was the filmmaker’s decision to put an important message about gun laws into a movie that really didn’t need it. Black Lives Matter is another topic that felt like it was used to be a plot device and nothing more. If the action took place mostly on the bed with our characters finding new ways to get to a safe spot, this could be a lot of fun. It could start at the same sex club because we do find out later that a previous murder did take place there. The bed was sold to a hotel and that’s where we meet our four swingers.
So while Virgil is investigating how this crime happened. We could see how the couples find their way to freedom I thought Alysa King and Gwenlyn Cumyn were very good and they had me fully immersed in wanting them to be safe. Colin Price was also quite good, and he had some good moments that made me emphasize with his character. It did have moments that did make me jump and if writers Cody Calahan and Jeff Maher just worked on the story and didn’t try to shoehorn in important topics that has no relevance. This could be a really fun movie that could have a franchise behind it. Imagine a whole store full of evil furniture. A possessed lamp, an evil rug, a murderous couch. The sky is the limit.
NOTE: The Dwelling was previously titled Bed of the Dead. Read our review of that film here.