The Lonely Ones begins in 1988 with sorority girls telling scary stories in an isolated rural cabin. Moments later the girls are attacked in a sequence effectively utilizing split screen technique- a device which, unfortunately, isn't used again. The action shifts to the present day. A group of young adults will be spending the weekend at, you guessed it, an isolated rural cabin. En route they have a strange encounter at a rest stop. They arrive. After much exposition and consumption of alcohol they begin discussing local legends, especially an infamous crime that supposedly happened nearby in 1988. The brainy girl (she wears glasses) just happens to have brought her laptop and is soon surfing the Net. Yes, there were killings nearby in 1988. Very nearby. In fact, they are in the very cabin that's the scene of the still unsolved crime.. Then the lights go out.
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The group is about to encounter the legendary “lonely ones,” roving ghouls who feed on human flesh. These creatures had long been content feeding off isolated wanderers, but have grown bolder and begun striking closer to cities. Two men go downstairs and reset the breaker box. They encounter a pair of weird strangers and the core action begins. From there on the story often moves in nearly real time as the group discovers an evil like they never dreamed existed. And not everyone is who they appear to be. An unlikely hero arises. Blake, a biker type, at first glance seems to be one of the bad guys, but we find that he's been tracking the lonely ones for many moons.
Most characters do what you'd expect them to. Scream, run, die, that sort of thing. But there are several surprises. Chief among these is a totally unexpected beheading: we don't look away because we don't see it coming. The Motion Picture Academy isn't likely to establish Best Decapitation as a category, but this is the best use of this device I've seen since the original
The Omen in 1976. More importantly, some characters don't
do what you expect them to. Blake is emphatic that the group must stay together; various people wander off here and there. Some make surprising emotional and moral choices and do things that violate common sense but are believable in the context of the moment. So where did the other five points go? Some performances, especially in the early scenes, are just plain bad. The line readings are too often flat and the actors seem disinterested. I use the term line readings because too much dialogue sounds as if it's being read cold from a Teleprompter. And the sense of pacing- increasingly strong up until then- falters terribly in the closing moments.
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The films 'monsters' (the dorky looking one strangely resembling Tom Green) are more interesting than the 'normal' people. Their interaction with the terrified protagonists is compelling and I'd really like to know more about these creatures: where they came from, their strengths and weaknesses, their mortality and sense of morality As a writer, Quiroz is a talent to watch. If he creates a sequel to
The Lonely Ones I'll be happy to watch it. It would give him a chance to build on his strengths and avoid the pitfalls that keep this project from reaching its potential.
