Summary
6 tech score
“The Vault” (FilmRise)
There is something ominous about the incidents occurring throughout the new horror movie “The Vault”. You feel it right from the start, and it gets deeper and darker till the end. It is not something clearly defined but it arises from the nervous looks in the characters eyes. It certainly adds to the chills and thrills sprung on the audience by Director Dan Bush as he leads them and the audience down a winding trail to terror.
“The Vault” starts with a bank heist. Two sisters assist their brother in robbing the bank so he can pay off his debt to a mob-like group. Leah Dillon (Francesca Eastwood) enters the bank with an application for employment, while sister Vee (Taryn Manning) starts up an argument with one of the tellers over her bank account. Brother Michael (Scott Haze) and two of his buddies come in posing as firefighters.
Ed Maas (James Franco) is an employee of the bank and works with this band of robbers to keep the people there safe. It is he who tells them that there is much more money in a vault deep in the basement. He says there are millions there and that they can have it if they just make sure no one is harmed. Of course there is more in the vault than the money.
This is a good starting point for the film – a bank heist crossed with the supernatural. It allows things to get pretty wild while keeping the storyline somewhat grounded in reality as to the robbery. The main selling point of the film is the cast of characters. We know who the bad guys are and we dislike them, but then they do something fairly decent and you have to resort your thinking. You are off balance from the start.
Francesca Eastwood is the daughter of actors Clint Eastwood and Frances Fisher. She inherited acting talent from both of them, and she definitely has her mother’s eyes. As Leah, she is the character who appears somewhat nervous in the beginning about what is going to happen at the bank. She is also the first character to hear the story of the “haunting atmosphere” in the basement. Eastwood handless all the nuances required of her role and walks the fine line between good and evil.
Franco is the “name” star of the movie and he is very good in his role as Ed. He manages to know a lot of secrets that have an impact on the final elements of the story. It is a nice, calm and cool performance by Franco and it too adds to the off-kilter tone of the film.
The movie is not rated but would probably fall into the R category because of violence and profanity.
“The Vault” keeps its secrets sealed until it is the right time to unleash them. Some of them are predictable while others are not. Good acting and good directing lift it above the average fare. It may not be a suspense/horror masterpiece but watching it is a load of fun.
I scored “The Vault” a sealed in 6 out of 10.
Jackie K Cooper
www.jackiekcooper.com
