The loss of a child is one of the hardest things a person can endure. The loss of two would be unbearable. Billy Lewis’s THE TERRIBLE TWO derives its plot from just that, Sadly none of that loss, or any real emotion, manages to find its way to the screen.
Albert (Reid Doyle) and Rose (Cari Moskow BUTCHERED) Poe are a young couple looking for a house to start a family in, and Fred P (Donny Boaz SILENT RETREAT, ALTERNATE REALITIES) has just the house for them. The fact he can’t talk about what happened to the previous owners is a mere detail.
We jump forward seven years. To the days leading up the one year anniversary of the deaths of their two girls. It also would have been their birthday. Rose is refusing to go to work and talking to what apparently are the girl’s spirits. She also finds an occult manuscript in the attic written by a former owner. This doesn’t convince them to leave. They argue a lot, a couple of generically creepy things happen then in the last 15 or so minutes it becomes a demonic version of THE STRANGERS. And of course, there’s a wholly predictable epilogue involving a real estate agent…
From the spoken intro that basically tells us how the film ends right on until that end THE TERRIBLE TWO is a dull, badly acted mess. For most of it, nothing really happens except a troubled couple bicker and argue a lot. And when something odd does happen of course it’s ignored.
A knife-wielding woman who knew the previous owner shows up and tells them they’re doomed and it’s ignored. Rose’s therapist ( Devin McGee AMERICAN WARSHIPS), who’s also a clergyman, stops by and is so creeped out that he bolts from the house. No big deal. Then they’re shocked when the shit hits the fan.
There are the seeds of a story in the script that could have been a grim and effective thriller. It could even have been the film it’s publicity hyped it up to be. Instead, it feels long even at only 84 minutes. THE TERRIBLE TWO is just plain terrible.
THE TERRIBLE TWO will premiere on VOD March 6 from Uncork’d Entertainment.