After a delightful and playful opening credits sequence,
the film begins with someone running through the woods, someone we don’t see.
The camera provides his perspective, as we hear his hurried footsteps and
anxious breath, so yes, there is some jerky camera movement. He is being
followed, as the film provides a second perspective, differentiated by the
change in score and the speed of the movement of the camera. The score by
Carlos Vivas is excellent, by the way. That frantic movement is then contrasted
with the static, calm shot of the exterior of a house, through the windows of
which we can see the friends having dinner, unaware that their calm is about to
be destroyed.
The dinner scene is quite good, quickly establishing the
characters’ relationships and showing their playful, though occasionally biting
humor toward each other. One couple is planning a wedding, while another couple
announces a pregnancy. But perhaps it is the third couple that is most
interesting. They aren’t actually a couple, though it is clear that Terrence
(George Troester) is attracted to Tess (Jessica Sonneborn). We learn that Tess
is seeing an older man, though that relationship is not all that serious
according to her. If it were, wouldn’t that man be present at the dinner? Perhaps.
But Terrence implies that maybe Tess’ sexual tendencies lean in another
direction. All of this will come into play as the movie unfolds. But just as
the conversation might turn serious, as there is some confusion as to just
which one of them found this house to hold their holiday celebration, there is
a loud pounding at the door.
When Tess opens the door, a man stumbles in, spitting up
blood on her before collapsing on the floor. He points at Terrence, then tells
the group, “Never open the door.” Strange advice from a man who kept
knocking, demanding to be let in. But things are about to get very strange for
this group of friends, whose cell phones mysteriously cease normal functions,
though one of the them, Luke, begins receiving text messages about his wife and
friends from an unknown source. Meanwhile the lights go off, and when they come
back on, Tess is missing. But moments later, she arrives at the door, as if she
had never been there, which, as you might imagine, weirds out the group. And
Luke receives a text message indicating that Tess is an imposter.
There are some problems, of course. Why doesn’t Luke
respond to the text messages, asking the person to identify himself or herself?
It seems he is all-too-ready to become unhinged, perhaps was on his way to
delusions and fears even before this Thanksgiving gathering. In fact, all of
the characters seem to accept this altered reality quite quickly. There is also
the problem of characters not hearing things that they would have heard, like
other characters screaming upstairs. That is, unless the isolation of various
characters is so complete that they are unaware of the others, like the house
itself is keeping them from hearing each other. Also, it seems a lot of the
dialogue was improvised, which leads to a whole lot of repetition, like them
saying multiple times that Tess was standing right there. At another point
Maria asks Luke “What are you doing?” like half a dozen times in a row.
Some of this should have been cut, but the movie is only sixty-four minutes as
it is. But interestingly, much of the dialogue does have a natural feel, and
the cast largely does a decent job of conveying their fears and uncertainties
in a believable way. And the creepiness of the atmosphere is maintained
throughout.
Special Features
The DVD contains interviews with Jessica Sonneborn,
director Vito Trabucco and producer Christopher Maltauro. Jessica talks about
shooting at Big Bear and about the makeup. And yes, she does mention that there
was some improvisation. Vito Trabucco talks about the story idea, the shoot,
and his love for Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Christopher Maltauro talks about the script, and mentions that the original
running time was too short (which is incredible, considering how short the
final product is). For Maggie contains more from these three interviews,
the topic here being Maggie Dillon, who did the special effects makeup for the
film, and who died soon after the film was made. There is also a photo gallery
of production stills, as well as the film’s trailer.
Never Open The Door was directed by Vito Trabucco,
who also co-wrote the script and plays a minor role in the film. It was
released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 6, 2016.
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