John’s Horror Corner: Lowlifes (2024), a domestic survival horror that playfully toys with your expectations.

MY CALL: This was pretty good. The acting, writing, production, gore and violence are all executed well. But I won’t lie—I kind of wanted more. More meanness, more gore, more humor, more extremity, more suffering, more creative deaths, even yet more family drama… something more. MORE MOVIES LIKE Lowlifes: Maybe You’re Next (2013), Becky (2020) or Ready or Not (2019).

Suffering through a boring family vacation grilling out by the RV, Amy (Amanda Fix; Orphan Black: Echoes) and Jeffrey (Josh Zaharia) would rather be anywhere else. But things get even more uncomfortable when they are visited by hillbilly locals Vern (Richard Harmon; The 100) and Billy (Ben Sullivan), who seem anything but trustworthy. Their very polite but equally very nervous parents Keith (Matthew MacCaull; Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) and Kathleen (Elyse Levesque; Ready or Not) succeed in getting the dirty yokels on their way… but as experienced horror viewers, we all know we’ll be seeing more of them.

For such an unfamous cast and directors I never heard of, the writing and acting are a pleasant surprise. The dialogue is simple, direct and well in-character, even if clearly deliberately tropey at times. The family dad says all the things we’d expect, doesn’t listen to his understandably frightened wife, and makes the very mistakes of the genre’s design. So when they happen upon the same unsavory hillbillies again, this time with car trouble up the road, they give Billy an awkward ride to his remote family home where the phone reception is poor and neighbors are distant. It’s pretty amusing seeing the pressure of being well-mannered good Christians supersede our characters’ sense of danger and distrustful smiling strangers.

The country family includes Savannah (Brenna Llewellyn), Juli Ann (Cassandra Sawtell; Harper’s Island), their grandfather Neville (Kevin McNulty; The Uninvited), and the massive Big Mac (Dayleigh Nelson).

Another pleasant surprise from this movie is that it’s not going where we expect. When our family realizes the challenge presented before them in this remote house, the controlling “father knows best” allegory runs thick as Keith manages his wife’s nerves, his daughter’s sexual orientation and his son’s risky impulses—all while trying to survive this ordeal. And if you thought it was going to be a little campy, just wait until you see what’s in the meat freezer. Campy severed body parts galore.

The violence is gory and graphic, from visceral Achilles slashes and blood-spurting slit throats to slowly sawing off limbs, and it’s all on screen. But truly, the first hour of the movie packs little action and entertains more in the form of dangerous social situations. But in that third act we enjoy some solid gore gags and mean violence in this domestic survival horror.

Directors Tesh Guttikonda and Mitch Oliver’s first feature film is a decent one. I enjoyed this, and I’ll watch out for what they do next. Would I recommend this…? Sure. This is a low to moderate priority recommendation for someone who enjoys mean, gory, even somewhat cheeky horror.