As Halloween nears more scary films are being released with the intent of frightening film lovers. Some will be good, some will be bad and some will be in between. Consider the film THE OWNERS to fall into that last category.
In England a group of 20 somethings decides to break in a house when the owners leave. The mother of Terry (Andrew Ellis), one of the group’s members, is the house cleaner there and he knows from her that there is a large safe in the house. As they wait for the owners to leave the girlfriend of one, Mary (Maisie Williams) shows up telling her boyfriend Nathan (Ian Kenny) to come away and take her to work. He leaves her to enter the house as the couple who own the house leave.
Led by Gaz (Jake Curran) the group breaks into the house and goes on a destructive bent. Smashing things, knocking things off of shelves and more they search for this safe when it becomes apparent Terry has no clue where it is. Throughout this rampage Mary tries to convince them to leave to no avail. Eventually they find the safe in the basement but before they can break into it the owners of the house return.
Taking them captive we learn that the aging couple are Dr. Huggins (Sylvester McCoy) and his wife Ellen (Rita Tushingham). Tying them up they attempt to force the doctor to give them the combination to the safe. Refusing to do so the Gaz threatens them, urging Nathan to cut off one of Ellen’s fingers. As the tension rises between the members of the group a fight follows with Gaz stabbing Nathan. Without revealing what takes place next suffice to say Mary comes to the rescue and releases the hostages.
But this is one of those films where everything is not what it appears to be. Once released the tables slowly turn and the hunters become prey to this elderly couple. Not in an action packed way but slowly, methodically. It seems they have a secret that they’ve kept hidden. Now the gang has to worry not about just surviving but escaping as well. And the odds are stacked against them.
The move is well crafted and looks great with some nice cinematography going on. But a great movie needs more than just that. Plot wise we have a theme that’s been used in the past in other films with a few slight tweaks to change things up a bit. It still makes for an interesting story though.
I found that the weakest point of the film was the dialogue. For me the overuse of bad language, in particular the F bomb, is a sign of lazy writing. Yes, people do talk like this. No they don’t use it every third word. If that’s what is used to convey that these are lower working class characters there are better ways of doing so. Instead the use here becomes repetitive and useless.
With the exception of the two actors playing the elderly couple (Sylvester was once a Dr. Who and Tushingham was well known in the 60s for films like A TASTE OF HONEY and DOCTOR ZHIVAGO) the main selling point here is Williams coming fresh off the success in the HBO series GAME OF THRONES. There she starred as Arya Stark and made a name for herself. This film feels a bit below her status if she hopes to move on to cashing in on her fame from that series.
In the end the movie does provide a few scares and a decent story even if a familiar one. If you’re looking for something to watch and noticing that the titles available these days are limited you might want to give this one a try. Just don’t set your expectations high and you’ll find it worth watching.
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