User reviews

If you have to depend on constant darkness to make a horror movie, it means the plot isn't good enough to carry it. I'm just about 40 minutes into the movie. Can't see a thing.

Alyson Richards' script tells the story of a young lesbian couple who want to reignite the passion in their relationship by going to an off grid retreat in a remote part of Ontario. Instead of finding a long weekend of lovemaking, the couple is captured by a group of homophobic survivalists who make money showing their bloody torture acts on the web.

As far as the horror goes, the plot is just a variation of 100 other movies where city dwellers fall into the hands of insane hillbillies. The couple is suffering from the same "need a way back to each other" dynamic they do in all these films. In this case, the hillbillies have a special kind of hate, but they aren't much different than the one in the other movies.

What's different is how angry the women are at the people who attacked them. They don't really want to be rescued by the police. They want to waste the monsters and leave the world a safer place. What's also different is how uniting against the common enemy reunites the women, and makes them a stronger couple.

This movie is about the needless political attacks on the LGBTQ community, and the legacy of pain and anger it leaves. The whole point of the movie is that the women are made stronger by uniting and vanquishing the threat.

As a horror movie, it's mediocre and made on a shoestring. The lighting is so dark it's hard to watch on a tv and the scares aren't very scary. The scares aren't really there to scare the viewer anyway.

As a political statement, the scares just make the viewer angry, which is what Richards wants. She is telling the world that there are lots of people who would cheer for the deaths of LGBTQ people. She wants the world to know "homophobia" is a nice word for "hate." She doesn't believe LGBTQ people are safe as long as homophobia exists, and she is right about it,

I don't know a thing about lighting but I do know that when I'm looking at black screen during many scenes, something is wrong. Lighting or not, there is not much to this movie. And emphasizing "lesbian" couple is odd. Straight couple or lesbian couple....the movie would the exact same.

As others have commented, the lighting in this film is far too dark. From around the 28 minute mark or so you can barely see anything.

I get that they're trying to create an atmosphere, but by making a film, i have to presume they wanted the audience to actually see what was happening on screen. Well, they failed.

The opening 28 minutes or so looked OK,even though our two protagonists were quite annoying.

What we end up with though, from what i could make out, was fairly run of the mill for this genre, other than the 'victims being gay, which added nothing to the story in all honesty.

I'd like to be able to leave a review of the film, but i didn't watch a film. I watched a black screen.

I liked it, it was very typical though nothing we haven't seen before or something special I have seen films just like this a million times. But it had some tension in it and it was really enjoyable to spend my time I think it deserves to be watched at least once.

Like the movie's runtime (and my patience for it), I'm going to keep this review short. Initial suspense? It's what earned the meager extra star of this review. Acting? Eh. Everything else? HORRIBLE. Poor lighting makes most of the second half difficult to watch, not that you'll miss much. Very little makes sense. There was so much potential...

Good movie,easy a seven.good plot & good acting why so low? Very enjoyable, its a watch it with popcorn movie.

The plot of this 2021 Reteat was brilliant, the only thing that made me not score it above 5 was that the best part of 45mins was so Dark that u couldn't see anything properly! I know it's a horror but the fact there was no lighting at all ruined it for me! Otherwise I thought the plot was great!

Solid cinematography, sound effects and a good storyline, this holiday horror flick is definitely up there with the likes of Turistas and the Strangers.

There isn't too much gore, so quite suitable for faint of heart....

I wish it lasted a bit longer. It's not anything we haven't seen before but it was executed properly, what do you want more from this sub-genre?

Protagonists are very likable, especially Renee. Humor is present occasionally but isn't forced. I wish it had the same directorial angle as in the second half of the movie because the first half is kinda messy.

One of the negatives is that it's way too dark during some scenes in first half of the film, I watched it on highest resolution in complete darkness and still couldn't see what was going on.

Soundtrack is good, it adds to some already good scenes. Pace is tailored for its duration. Granted, characters haven't always made the smartest decisions (during the first half) but then again it's a slasher.

The ending was super enjoyable and gave me chills. 6/10.

Well acted; the only one I knew was Aaron Ashmore. They all did a good job. Violent and visceral, over the top protagonists, and a proper ending. The theme is a little wokeish. My only gripe is we now seem to be in a PC age where the victims never let loose, giving pain to the baddies; they are often dispatched painlessly and quick ( I want revenge to be seen ) IE the remake of I Spit on your grave, and similar. It did what it said on the tin and kept my attention.

When I sat down to watch this 2021 thriller/horror movie titled "The Retreat" from writer Alyson Richards and director Pat Mills, I must admit that my expectations weren't all that high, as the movie had managed to acquire a rating of 3.6 stars here on IMDb.

But still, it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I managed to find the time to watch it.

And sure, "The Retreat" was a watchable movie, albeit a very mundane and generic one at that, especially for a movie such as this, set in the trapped in the wilderness and stalked by killers genre. If there is such a thing.

The storyline was pretty straight forward, but it suffered heavily from being rather generic and predictable. Sure, it was watchable and entertaining enough, but the storyline does leave lots to be wanted. The movie had potential to be much more than what director Pat Mills managed to make it into.

The acting in the movie was adequate. Now, a movie such as "The Retreat" is not the type of movie heavily reliant on Shakespearian performances, so don't consider yourself in for some mind-blowing and amazing acting performances here. Sure, I will say that the acting was okay for the movie, but that was about it.

The overall feel to the movie was just bland. Writer Alyson Richards didn't bring anything new to the genre, and just played it safe by following a strict 'how-to-make-a-trapped-in-the-wilderness-stalked-by-killers' blueprint. So everything you see in "The Retreat" is something that has been done and seen countless times before in other movies of the same type, and more often done better than what was done here in "The Retreat".

The movie was just rather devoid of ghastly things to keep the motivation going. I mean, there just was limited amounts of gore and violence in the movie, something which could have helped promote the overall enjoyment of "The Retreat" somewhat.

It felt a little bit too scripted and too much of an easy ride for the two main characters in the movie as they went through what was supposed to be a harrowing ordeal of being trapped in the wilderness and stalked by killers. They just seemed to stroll through the events a bit too easily. And that made for a rather mundane movie experience, because it was lacking that element of terror, dread, hardship and actually being at risk.

While I managed to sit through the entire movie, I must say that "The Retreat" was actually better than I had anticipated. But don't get me wrong here, because I am not saying that "The Retreat" was an outstanding movie experience. Hardly so. Nay, "The Retreat" was watchable, yes, but it was just too bland and generic actually.

My rating of "The Retreat" lands on a very mediocre five out of ten stars.

Far too dark for my liking, even with brightness up full you can hardly see what is going on, not that any of it is particularly interesting.

Becomes a bit formulaic and a bit woke-ish too but acting was competent. Uninventive kills with no visceral gore like they are trying to tone it down these days - would be rated a bit of a 15 cert or even a PG in my book!

Below average 4 hatchets this time round the kill-lberry bush!

Renee (Tommie-Amber Pirie) and her girlfriend Valerie (Sarah Allen) are going on a retreat to a cabin in the woods. At the local store, Val gets hit on by James (Aaron Ashmore). There are suspicious happenings. Their car is gone. Their hosts are a couple of gay guys and they've been murdered by a masked man dressed in camo hunting gear.

This is a simple horror film. The gay targeting is somewhat interesting but the movie doesn't fully exploit it. I would have Renee try harder with the bear trap. The movie should spend more time with that scene to build up tension. It just struggles to build high tension. The actors are fine and there are some good ones here. The filmmaking is perfunctory. It's trying to be torture porn but It's not good enough. I don't think the director is a horror aficionado and it shows.

Dont understand the low rating i thought it was a pretty decent movie kept me watching till the end.

When i say its the worst written film ive ever seen, i 100% mean it. Making the villains anti gay is so ridiculous. And hearing her talk about deer hunting literally pissed me off. Clearly no actual hunter wrote this.

A young Lesbian couple dismally discover that their weekend woodland retreat yields very little in the way of TLC in this pacy, mean-spirited backwoods blood-spiller! Renee and Valerie are a warm, amiable, greatly sympathetic couple, the retrograde B-villains are deliciously despicable, and the grisly climax is immensely satisfying! While borrowing from 'Southern Comfort' and 'The Zero Boys', this gutsy, lean n' mean off-grid Canadian shocker proves itself to be an excitingly intense, fabulously fiesty femme-led fright flick with a pair of refreshingly likeable protagonists! The isolated, Evil Dead-esque cabin is grimly set against an oppressively vast, breathtakingly beauteous expanse of woodland, making a suitably threatening rural backdrop for our plucky heroines increasingly torturous travails. Tommie-Amber Pirie and Sarah Allen deliver compelling, energized performances, and composer, Steph Copeland's moody synth-heavy score proffers agreeably unsettling vibes throughout. Contrary to the erroneous claims upon the DVD cover 'The Retreat' shares little in common with 'The Hills Have Eyes' or I Spit on your Grave!!!! These blackened hills are NOT alive with the sound of cannibal mutants or rampant sex predators, as these sadistic survivalists have a far more sinister agenda!

I liked this Canadian movie, very tense and quite terrifying. It is not bad at all for a horror film, which are usually quite bad and with bad actors and boring stories.

This is the opposite, the actors don't have to act too much, but they do get to it. Yes, the story is somewhat cliché but it has an original tone with the masks and the unexpected ending.

The film is somewhat dark on many occasions but I was able to solve it by modulating the brightness in the menu of my television. Although they could have thought better about the light in some important scenes.😬

I would have put another title to the movie, something more exciting, for example, the forest of blood.. or something like that, the title does not make any sense because the movie is not about a retreat. I think it would attract more lovers of horror movies.

I recommend it!

Weak script, unlikable, uninteresting characters, poor cinematography, and amateur acting make this picture a complete waste of the viewers time.... I wanted to like this movie, I really did, but couldn't find a single reason to give it anything more then one star. There was nothing that kept my attention. As hard as I tried to watch everything else kept pulling my focus away from the movie. I actually wound up vacuuming while glancing at the TV for a particular scream or noise. This is just a poorly made movie rushed to the marketplace because it has... LESBIANS!!! I find this very condescending.

The Retreat is a Canadian horror movie shot in the beautiful province of Ontario. It tells the story of a lesbian couple from Toronto that wants to spend a romantic weekend in the woods. However, the hosts of their cabin have mysteriously vanished upon arrival. Soon after, their car and cell phones also disappear. The two protagonists must face a group of psychopaths who attempt to capture, torture and murder them for the live stream of a snuff film.

Only few elements can convince in this weak horror movie. First of all, some of the locations are quite appealing and especially the city of Toronto looks absolutely magnificently. If you have never visited this city, do yourself a favour and don't hesitate to do so. In my humble opinion, this city is even more beautiful than any American City on the East Coast that I have been to. The second element that deserves praise are the brutal killing scenes in the second half of the movie. Especially the final three kills are quite memorable for genre enthusiasts. Lastly, I would like to point out the very good acting skills by Tommie-Amber Pirie who convinces as gritty city girl with a rural past. Viewers will be rooting for her survival and happiness until the very end. I'm looking forward to seeing her in other Canadian movies in the future.

Everything else regarding that movie is however a disappointment. The plot is as predictable, shallow and unimaginative as it gets. The villains and the villainess portrayed in the movie are as exchangeable as they get. The settings in the forest are as bland as they get which comes as a unwelcome surprise since the natural environment of Ontario is truly gorgeous. For a horror movie, this film lacks drama, intensity and tension. Especially the opening twenty minutes are boring and the numerous scenes shot in a dark basement are at best sleep-inducing. The movie's ending is disappointing as it fades out rather than ending with a bang. The scriptwriters have been very lazy here and have left out the opportunity to end their horror movie with a memorable twist. What we get instead is a mellow happy ending that doesn't suit its genre at all.

In the end, The Retreat is a below average Canadian horror movie that is only interesting for adamant genre enthusiasts. The shots filmed in Toronto, the acting performance of Tommie-Amber Pirie and the killing scenes in the film's second half deserve praise. The ending, the plot, the settings, the tension and the villains are all disappointing. As you can read, the negative elements certainly outnumber the positive ones. You can spend the eighty-two minutes of this film doing much more beautiful things to be honest.