Prospective Hollywood artisan Dan Bush, starting work on a new project, promised to harmoniously combine the two most unfading genres, scare the audience to shiver, surprising with an unpredictable final twist. The film “Vault” (2017) turned out to be moderately intriguing horror thriller with an IMDb rating of 4.70, which, according to the verdict of film critics, did not become a significant event in the genre framework.
Film industry must be economical
It’s no coincidence that Dan Bush is known as a jack of all trades; his versatility is not caused at all by the abundance of innate talents, but rather by mercantile considerations and the economy of film production. In his new work, he acts as a director, co-author of the script and editor. A budget of $ 5,000,000 is enough to produce a standard Hollywood horror film, if you do not involve first-rate movie stars in your work and are not particularly zealous with demonstrating otherworldly entities.
According to reviews of the movie “Repository” published by film experts, Bush, drawing on his own experience, shot another project without much squandering. The director invited one artist with a famous name - James Franco, an actor who flashes with ever-changing success in films from the arthouse to the mainstream.
The plot twists and turns
The story of the tape begins with the old-fashioned long opening credits that help the viewer to tune in to view modern history, the roots of which go back to the last century. Evaluating the picture, critics in reviews of the film “Vault” indicate that the director, after issuing a batch of initial hints, then plays a non-bad, albeit built on templates, performance of a bank robbery. At the center of the story, two young sisters - Vee and Leah (Terin Manning and Francesca Eastwood) - with the help of accomplices, begin to implement the plan for the impudent bank robbery. Having neutralized the guards, criminals open a bank and find there an insignificant amount of money. Unexpectedly, one of the employees (James Franco) tells the raiders about the basement vault, in which several million dollars are hidden. The robbers, going downstairs, do discover a storehouse that contains not only banknotes in its bowels.
Analyzing the structure of the picture, critics in reviews of the film “The Vault” express regret about the director’s inadequate attention to the hero of Clifton Collins Jr. The detective is more likely to loom in the background, although he could become a significant character.
Curious effect
The creators of horror traditionally practice cooperation with little-known actors. This is done so that the audience does not perceive their characters as movie heroes, see ordinary people in them. In crime thrillers, on the contrary, stars of the first magnitude are invited, so that the viewer sympathizes and empathizes with the heroes. Dan Bush chose the second path and did not lose. In the "Repository" the actors were selected extremely well. The charisma and appearance of Manning and Eastwood, combined with the character and manner of behavior of their characters form an interesting effect. On the one hand, the beholder is very curious to find out what their adventures will end in, and on the other, any outcome (death or salvation) is perceived as permissible and justified. This is a definite plus of entertaining cinema, which, according to reviews, is the film “Vault”. The tape scares, but does not immerse the audience in a depressed state due to the sudden death of the character you like.
They waited a long time, but they did not see the use
It should be noted that the director, apparently, was very sorry to kill his heroes, ruthlessly cracking down on the hostages is also not original, therefore, already in the middle the story begins to sag openly. Unable to achieve maximum tension, the authors of the film ineffectively squander most of the prepared tricks. And the need to keep in the shadow of the fundamental character negates its significance. Dialogues exacerbate the situation.
As a result, the Bush horror turned out to be an order of magnitude higher than most modern genre paintings, which are shot in batches and do not always reach wide distribution. But the film desperately lacks the bold scenic moves that can captivate the viewer, to be remembered. The film looks helpless in those episodes when the narrative is interrupted by a supposedly meaningful demonstration of empty corridors or lengthy dialogue of characters on the topic of why they are afraid to visit the toilet. The very nature of evil, waiting in the basement, caused a lot of questions, the answer to which was not given by the creators even in the final spread.