There are several options when deciding to tell the story of a group of survivors in the midst of a mysterious and deadly invasion. The first is to show the aliens or threats head-on in a close-up of more survivalist action. The second is to leave the threat in the shadows and reveal its appearance at the last moment. Director Leah Sturgis chose the second option with Trapped Inn, placing a team of cyclists in a mansion in the Pyrenees mountains of France, surrounded by a mist.
As tensions flare between Connor (Matt Rife) and team leader Greg (Robert Palmer Watkins), and the mansion’s owners behave strangely, more and more members of the household disappear as the days go by. Restricted by his budget, Sturgis makes a good choice in making her invisible menace hard to discern. Trapped Inn takes what makes the quality of threats in John Carpenter films such as The Fog and makes it his own, using elements from genre films such as The Mist. The film’s cinematography is also undeniably polished, with good management of lighting and framing, as well as drone shots to emphasize the protagonists’ distance from civilization. And let’s not forget the special effects work for the fog, which is also quite successful and makes the threat convincing.
“…a group of survivors in the midst of a mysterious and deadly invasion…”
But where Trapped Inn gradually loses interest is in its writing, which is far too spread out over the length of the film. At 114 minutes, Sturgis has more than enough time to drive her characters crazy as they all confine themselves to the house, watching the news channels after the death of several members. Yet the narrative structure seems completely uneven, eliminating team members quickly and leaving the second act with very little to talk about. Inevitably, the film gets bogged down in the confinement of its characters, giving little to sink its teeth into.
Which is a shame, because Trapped Inn had some good ideas at the outset, with Connor’s vlog, the group’s gradual mental descent, especially Coach (Brian Gross), and the villa’s owners, who are ousted almost immediately without much reason. If the film could benefit from a 20-minute cut in its editing—as well as its unnecessarily sexual writing at times—this could result in a far more compelling and narratively engaging product.
Trapped Inn isn’t all doom and gloom, however: the relationship between Greg and Connor turns out to be quite well developed, and the idea of setting the story in a remote location where the only source of information is the news is well executed and serves the same narrative idea used by M. Night Shyamalan in Signs. But unfortunately, the film fails to deliver the hoped-for conclusion, answering a few of our questions in its final minutes. What’s more, it infuses its final explanations with ideas totally absent from the main narrative, making the whole thing all the more confusing.
All this gives the impression that Leah Sturgis found herself trapped in her own script, and in trying to develop her characters’ survival inside the house, lost the explanation of the threat awaiting them outside. But with a few cuts in her editing, the director could turn Trapped Inn into something convincing.
"…setting the story in a remote location where the only source of information is the news is well executed..."
