Pod only has a 4.2 on IMDB and this is why I don’t trust IMDB. Honestly, I feel that this deserves higher, so I will elaborate a bit on a relatively simple film. Also, Larry Fessenden and Lauren Ashley Carter reunited!
This is about 3 siblings, all at various stages in their lives. Ed comes off as the responsible, telling others how to live their life, type of guy. Lyla is doing cocaine and has terrible bangs. Martin is a former military guy who has had some mental issues since his time, and has been a sore spot for the family. He has required a lot of help in the past, and he’s the loose cannon that they try to help. Ed gets a disturbing voicemail from Martin, so Ed gets Lyla and they travel to the family cabin. There, they find what they view as a batshit crazy Martin.
Martin talks about experiments done to him while in the military and how out in the woods, he caught a Pod after it killed his dog, which we see in the opening. Martin is already and edgy guy, but this has sent him far over the deep end. Ed doesn’t believe his brother, thinking that this is just another psychotic episode, but Lyla believes him a bit. Martin can’t handle this shit anymore and kills himself. Unfortunately, Lyla’s character becomes annoying as fuck here, and I normally love Lauren Ashley Carter (The Woman, Jug Face, Darling, etc), so I don’t know if this was her doing or the director’s instructions, but she became borderline unbearable for a bit. Then this pans out as one would expect. They break into the locked door, and find a boarded up door and Ed is worried that Martin has kidnapped somebody, but this is horror, so we know otherwise. It plays out from there.
I’m sure that some people didn’t like the pacing of this, as it could have been trimmed 5-10 minutes and accomplished the exact same thing. Secondly, I know that Lauren’s performance was a bit grating at times, and once again, not sure who to blame there as she is always spot on, but when she is crying, it is that moment of condoning somebody to backhand a woman just to shut her up. I liked the idea and yeah, there have been things that you could say that this loosely borrowed from, but by and large, this felt pretty unique. I fail to see how this got below a 5 to be perfectly honest.
Rating – 5.5 seems right as it is re-watchable, and it was short. It also has Larry in a short, but very good role.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Please go find a copy and support the creators. It’s on NetFlix now, so at the very least, try it out, and if you like it, tell your friends.