The Holding (2011)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Expected more

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

In the countryside of England, lonely farmer Nancy raises her daughters Hanna and Amy with financial difficulties in her farm with her only employee Cooper since her husband has disappeared a long time ago. Her neighbor Karsten and his son intend to buy her farm and are pressing the family in an abusive way. Out of the blue, wanderer Aden appears in the farm and helps Nancy with the delivery of the offspring. Aden explains that he was a friend of her husband Dean in an offshore rig and he offers to work for food and lodging. Nancy accepts the offer and soon she has a love affair with Aden. But either Nancy or Aden have dark secrets. Although the acting isn't that bad The Holding seems like a remake of Stepfather that instead of a big city it's set in a countryside on England and sure it does have some good moments but besides that it's very mediocre and i'll give it an 6.4/10

I don't tend to review many films here at IMDb, because I run my own review site, Apocalypse Later. However I felt I should chime in on this one as none of the other reviewers seem to have got the point of this film and I didn't want potential viewers to be put off by their comments.Yes, there are similarities to The Stepfather. Certain scenes are overt homages to it. No, it's not a rip-off or a remake or anything similar.This is a feminist take on that whole genre of horror movies. The strong characters are the women, all of them. The men are only physically strong, but otherwise weak. That the 'stepfather' character gets ludicrous towards the end isn't weak writing. It's making a point. The only man in the picture with any strength is the one who's too old to do much that's physical.There's also a blurring of the roles of 'killer' and 'victim'. Traditionally, Aden would be just the killer, but it's shown that he's a victim too, not to elicit any sympathy from us but to highlight that his failings are because he's not strong enough to be anything else. He can't break the cycle. Traditionally, Cassie would be the victim but she's anything but here. Even when she's playing that role for necessity's sake, she's the strong one in the scene. She just can't match Aden physically so she doesn't try.I'd really like to see what female horror fans have to say about this film, especially those who have been subjected to abuse and found a way out. I'm male, but it seems to me that this would be an empowering film for abused women, far beyond its value as a horror/thriller that doesn't follow convention. I've seen it twice and felt that it played even better the second time through as I picked up on certain details that I'd missed first time round.

Lonely farmer Nancy raises her daughters Hannah and Amy with financial difficulties on her farm, since her husband has disappeared a long time ago.Her neighbour Karsten and his son intend to buy her farm and are pressing the family in an abusive way.Out of the blue, wanderer Aden appears on the farm and helps Nancy with the delivery of an offspring.Aden explains that he was a friend of her husband on an offshore rig and he offers to work for food and lodging.Nancy accepts the offer and soon she has a love affair with Aden.....Another one of those silly British movies that is all gritty and dirty looking, but trying to be the new 'thriller' or something. This film fails on every level.For a start the film has no plausibility about it, as no one would ever let a stranger stay in their house if they just appeared out of th blue, and the transformation from normal bloke to psychopath is just laughable.When you look at it from another angle, the film ha no real meaning to exist. It just happens, in a very boring and predictable way.Boring stuff, with a few minor distractions.

What starts as a pretty strong thriller descends into an odd (and sadly) bad mix of clichés. Notice who is still standing at the end and who isn't. See a pattern there? I wouldn't have, because I didn't really bother to think about the movie, but another viewer pointed that out to the director. She said it was a coincidence, but I seriously doubt that it was.Don't get me wrong, there have been movies going the opposite way than this (didn't like that either), but that's not what appalled me. The fact that you get a soap opera, dripping with melodrama in a bad way, that may have gore as a redeeming factor (for some) does make this a difficult watch. It's a shame, that the mood set at the beginning gets undermined by that.