Strix (2021)
6/10
Quite fun in spots but still let down in others
22 October 2022
Following a rash of strange murders, the parents of a missing victim hire an unconventional bounty hunter and his friend to recapture her and bring her back, but when they find out they've been captured by a crazed cult looking to offer them as sacrifices for a powerful deity race to save them from the cult's clutches.

Overall, this was pretty enjoyable for what it is. Among the film's better factors is a rather solid setup that serves to introduce everything quite well. By introducing the main girl as the kind of stereotypical good student looking to do the right thing, the family searching for their missing daughter being contacted by the renegade hunter to look into everything, and the exploits of his friend taking them into contact with the cult doing the kidnapping, this all offers a solid starting point here. The various storylines that intermingle due to this setup offer some great grindhouse-style scenes as they search through the community finding what they can against the cult. That setup generates some fun once the threat turns to where the film gets to operate as a rescue mission. As the bounty hunter and his friend move through the community which takes them into the woods, the concurrent scenes featuring the two meeting up and playing around with the locals on their quest to get to the heart of the cult's operations make it all fun enough until the final confrontation. Those scenes are where the film serves this best where the race to infiltrate their underground lair to save the kidnapped girls which adds some fun action-packed brawling going through the members and some brutal gore for the over-the-top kills. These manage to have a lot to like while there are some issues with this one. One of the main issues in this one is a rather unnecessary addition of comedy attached to the cult scenes which don't need to be there. This is mostly from the neurotic motormouth member who goes on and on with his spiel that some might find funny but does this at the wrong moments for those kinds of antics which renders a lot of the fear of the cult feel less imposing. That goes alongside the somewhat underwhelming lack of motivation for their rampage who are going through the motions but don't have the chance to spell everything out with all the extra time spent on those other issues which all end up dragging it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Brief Nudity.
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