Severin Fiala
The Lodge

"More circles can overlap without ever intersecting, giving rise to unforeseen and irreversible outcomes." (Dileuce)

The Lodge is openly one of the many variations on the sin-atonement theme.
It perhaps recalls Breaking the Waves, due to its Nordic atmospheres, the dynamics that arise among the characters, and the outcomes—another variation on the same theme.
Grace is the only survivor of the collective suicide of a cult led by her father, who also perished in the atonement ritual.
When Richard tells his ex-wife he plans to marry Grace, she commits suicide.
The children, Aidan and Mia, go to live with Richard, who, six months after the bereavement, hoping the time is right, suggests they spend Christmas with Grace at their mountain chalet (the lodge).
Insensitive to Aidan and Mia's protests, as they want nothing to do with Grace, Richard further informs them that they will stay with her alone for two days to get to know her better.
Despite several attempts, Grace fails to connect with the kids, who, blaming her for their mother's suicide and being aware of the cult's events, have set up a staged punishment for her.
While she sleeps, they hide the food and all objects in the house and disconnect the power generator, thus leaving them isolated in the snowstorm, unable to communicate with anyone.
At first, they make her believe the house is haunted by the spirit of their deceased mother seeking revenge, and later, by showing her a fake photo, they convince her that all three of them are dead and trapped in the house's limbo.
Grace tries to maintain the balance she had painstakingly regained after the cult events, but when she attempts to reach the nearby village for help, she falls prey to visions of her father asking her to repent.
The doubt that haunts her rekindles: was the cult massacre her doing?
Increasingly confused, after wandering in the snow searching for the road to the village, she finds herself back at the house where she discovers the frozen corpse of her dog.
This unexpected death causes Mia and Aidan to reconsider and attempt a return to normalcy, but it's too late for Grace.
Feeling guilty for ruining Richard's family, that night she punishes herself by burning her wounds.
The day after Richard's return, the outcome is inevitable.
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala seem to aim to progressively strip the supernatural from the horror.
The presences, the haunted house, and the events in the dollhouse that ominously foreshadow what will happen in the lodge are devices—instrumental uses of genre elements to confuse the viewer and lead them elsewhere.
When Aidan and Mia's deception against Grace is revealed, the horror is traced back to human affairs.
It is the offspring of other horrors, whether consciously or unconsciously suffered or committed, of deceptions or self-deceptions, of confused attributions, of divergent intentions and wills.
Once the horror façade is dismantled, everything returns to the concreteness of experiences and bodies.
When Aidan tries to convince Grace of their death, she says it's impossible because she feels hunger.
But perhaps this act of subtraction leaves the film itself in a limbo.
The two directors move the camera to surprise.
Shots and reverse shots alternate with angles from top to bottom to stifle perspective or vice versa to direct it upwards.
The inhospitable darkness of the interiors contrasts with the equally inhospitable whiteness outside.
The crucifix-shaped house, where Grace futilely seeks refuge, stands like a totem in the snow.
If the story were made of frames extracted from the film, scattered, and left to the viewer's free interpolation, the tension would soon creep in, despite the insistent search for the visually surprising.
But the horror does not hit the gut, nor does it unsettle, and the final revelation quickly plunges into a shocking von Trier-style twist.