In this report for Letterboxd News, I hear from the Austrian filmmaking duo behind the superlatively creepy new English-language horror film The Lodge: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who also made the acclaimed 2014 film Goodnight Mommy. 

Park City, Utah: The film at Sundance 2019 that made the biggest impression on this humble Letterboxd correspondent was undoubtedly The Lodge, the new horror from Austrian directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. The film is the pair’s English-language debut, and an eagerly anticipated follow-up to their acclaimed 2014 film, Goodnight Mommy.

Like Goodnight Mommy, The Lodge predominantly takes place in one location. In this case, it’s an isolated, cosy, wooden family holiday home next to a frozen lake. It’s owned by divorcé Richard (Richard Armitage from The Hobbit trilogy), who is father to teen Aiden (Jaeden Lieberher from It, credited here as Jaeden Martel) and the younger Mia (Lia McHugh).

Richard’s children are resentful of the new woman in their father’s life, Grace (Logan Lucky and American Honey actress Riley Keough). Aiden and Mia are doubly suspicious of Grace due to her having been, as a child, the soul-surviving member of a doomsday cult that committed mass suicide, a subject Richard writes about.