BEFORE I HAD ANY UNDERSTANDING ABOUT proper dieting, I tried a variety of ways to lose weight. During my elementary school years, I went on a daily lunch of clear chicken broth with a few oyster crackers. I lost a few pounds but did not give as much thought to my food intake for breakfast and dinner. Another diet I tried was eliminating bread, no more sandwiches or toast in the morning. All that happened was me being hungry and eating more ice cream instead. Because gym classes always caused me anxiety, I never thought about doing some type of exercise, except for a short period where I found a book that went through the exercise routines of the Canadian Mounties. I could not tell you where I got this book, but I tried doing the various exercises three times a week. It lasted for almost two months, but then again, the results were not dramatic, and I was looking for some serious weight loss. By the time I got to high school, my doctor put me on a pill to try and lose weight. I never knew what it was but some years later I found out the pills had a legal form of “speed.” My freshman year I remained skinny; however, when my days at school turned to the dark side during sophomore year, I put all the weight I had lost back on and then some.      IT WAS NOT UNTIL YEARS LATER, when I went to an aerobics class with a friend, that I finally understood the way I needed to lose weight. Due to the dramatic weight loss, I achieved, I was always being asked for weight loss advice from members of my classes. I shared my simple philosophy: one must burn off more calories than they take in. The things I saw through my years of teaching went from dramatic to scary. There was a woman at one club who had gotten so skinny that her hair started to fall out and she stopped menstruating. Another member at one of the other clubs got into weight training, but never incorporated any form of aerobics. They simply got bigger and bigger, which meant their weight was increasing as well. There have been so many stories I have heard about the things people do to feel better about themselves. One person did liposuction, but it left her misshapen and half of her stomach remained numb from the procedure. I tried my best to guide members if they asked me, but only by telling them what I did to lose weight. One of the main characters had the right idea about working out in their pool to feel better, but things did not end up the way he had hoped in this horror thriller.      THEIR NEW HOUSE HAD EVERYTHING THE  family wanted; but had something else that they did not want. With Wyatt Russell (Overlord, Everybody Wants Some!!) as Ray Waller, Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin, Bad Samaritan) as Eve Waller, Amelie Hoeferle (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Izzy Waller, Gavin Warren (The Man in the White Van, A Hard Problem) as Elliot Waller and Jodi Long (The Tale, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as Lucy Summers; this film missed an opportunity to create a scary thriller. Instead, all it offered was a poor excuse for a horror movie. Though the actors tried their best, the script was dull and unimaginative. I felt the scenes were clips from other horror films except with poorer special effects. There were a few scenes that sparked hope inside of me, but sadly the script did not veer off its mundane, average story. It would be best if one passed up on this mess of a picture.

1 ½ stars