Movie Review: ‘Lair’

Review by James Lindorf

“Dr.” Steven Caramore (Corey Johnson) is a ghost-hunting huckster much like the Warrens from the very popular Conjuring series. When his colleague Ben Dollarhyde (Oded Fehr) claims that a cursed artifact caused him to bludgeon his wife and child to death, Caramore sets out to prove Dollarhyde’s innocence. He develops a terrible plan to show that evil entities exist. Though he is a non-believer, Caramore wants to help his friend, ease his guilt since he is the one who gave Ben the artifact. Most importantly, he sees an opportunity to make money. Caramore will have to lure an unsuspecting family into his lair of demon-possessed items and hidden cameras to gather his evidence. “Lair” is now available to rent or purchase from all major streaming platforms.

Caramore sets his trap by offering to rent out a room in his late father’s building for families looking to vacation in London. He prepares the space by adding cameras to every room to monitor what is going on and places a single haunted item in the flat. His first renters include Maria (Aislinn De’ath), who is in the process of divorcing her husband and on vacation with her new same-sex partner Carly (Alana Wallace). Maria’s two children, 17-year-old Joey (Anya Newall) and precocious pre-teen Lilly (Lara Mount), join the new couple on the trip. The new family has plenty of their own issues and is using the trip in the hopes of becoming a tighter unit.

Maria is the straight-laced type. After getting pregnant with Joey at 18, she feels the need to be in control so life-altering events wouldn’t catch her by surprise. Maria loves cutting loose in her own way with Carly. Still, her partying ways and mild drug use remind Maria of who she used to be, and she judges Carly for her behavior. As Maria is experiencing this new side of her life and the excitement of a new relationship, a lot of the parenting of Lilly falls on Joey’s shoulders and goes unappreciated. Joey is a great big sister and a good kid, even if she occasionally rebels against Maria’s tight reigns. The main goal of the trip is to get the girls and Carly to bond. Joey is angry about her parents’ pending divorce and not ready to make nice with the woman that came between them. Lilly doesn’t have the same problem; she is just very attached to Joey and needs time to warm up to another adult. Their squabbles seem incredibly mundane when the objects Caramore places in their temporary home start to affect their behavior and take lives.

“Lair” has a good atmosphere and good performances, but the pacing and dialogue in winter and director Adam Ethan Crow’s screenplay erases all goodwill. You get snappy exchanges like this during a confrontation between Caramore and Ben’s lawyer Coulsen (Alexandra Gilbreath).

(Coulsen) “You don’t think I don’t know you inspired these murders. Believing the best way to research an item you thought satanic-possessed, cursed, was to place it inside my client’s home, sit back and wait for the paramedics and press to come calling.”

(Caramore) “Lady, your story has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese at a hooker convention.

Caramore goes on to ridicule her “Christian” take on what happened. Referring to the item as “a chunk of tree” and the religion having half a billion followers does not add credence to the theory because “so does Dwayne F-ing Johnson!”

Moments of laughingly bad dialogue aren’t enough to sink a film. It even has the chance of adding to its cult status. The thing that hurts “Lair” the most is its pacing. After the cold open showing the crimes of Dollarhyde, the wait for something else of note to happen borders on eternal. There is a moment here or there of something “spooky” occurring. Still, the vast majority of the runtime is watching the family become increasingly terrible to each other. The children seem largely unaffected by the negative energy, but Maria and Carly begin fighting with each other and Joey in an increasingly unreasonable fashion. The moments of violence are primarily off-screen or shown in shadows. When it is time for the climax, Crow completely changes his approach. Moving from a single plotline to a dual story of what happened in the flat the previous night and the investigation trying to piece it together. It is a decision that instantly killed any tension that had been built and offered nothing in return. It was a desperate bid to add a twist ending and keep the audience guessing.

As the most promising cast member, I am most interested in seeing what Anya Newall does with her future. Still, if Crow learns to edit himself and tell a more contained story, he could also have a bright career ahead of him. “Lair” offers an interesting premise and well above average independent horror movie acting but does nothing with these elements. In a way, it makes it a worse experience than a movie that is bad across the board. For failing to reach its potential, “Lair” is a 2 out of 5.

Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Director: Adam Ethan Crow
Producer: Shelley Atkin
Writer: Adam Ethan Crow
Release Date: November 9th, 2021
Runtime: 1h 36m