The holiday rental home horror subgenre picks up pace with the addition of director Travis Greene’s 8 Found Dead. This comedy-horror of manners isn’t so smarty pants about it as to hide the letters ‘Airbnb’ in its title, but it’s still pretty arch.
When two couples convene at a sleek, modern guest house in the desert for a weekend getaway, they’re disarmed to find the place already occupied by Liz (Rosanne Limeres) and Richard (Tim Simek). Splitting its narrative between the couples’ staggered arrival times, Greene and screenwriter Jonathan Buchanan draw suspense from the surely impending atrocities – less whodunnit, more what have they dun?
A slick, striking opening sequence sets the table well, even if it’s not entirely representative of the slow burn which follows. Greene and Buchanan are far more interested in building tension and tormenting their characters through vicious banter and the barbed tongues of its villains.
Like Who Invited Them before it, this is a subverted take on the home invasion subgenre – the violence building steadily through microaggressions and snide commentary. It’s not quite so polished as its 2022 predecessor – nor so fun as Barbarian’s own deliciously uncomfortable opening – but its splattery climax still succeeds in getting the blood pumping.
The body count may be a foregone conclusion, but the charm is in the journey there. In this respect, 8 Found Dead is an entertaining, if slightly bumpy, ride.
8 FOUND DEAD is out now on digital platforms.
