Journalist Tara (Tara Nichol Caldwell) agrees to move to a small town with her new boyfriend Johnny (Joshua Malekos) into the home of an Italian artist called Lyvia, who disappeared mysteriously months earlier. With no phone signal or internet connection, Tara turns to the locals to find out what happened to Lyvia and she uncovers a series of murders that took place 20 years earlier. As she digs deeper, Tara is pulled into a dangerous spiral where she’s not sure what’s real and what isn’t anymore.
‘Lyvia’s House’ is a thriller by best-selling author Patricia V. Davis that unravels slowly with the mystery of Lyvia’s disappearance at the centre. Tara spends time with the various people in the town as she tries to get information about Lyvia but she finds that many of them don’t want to say too much. The town oddball Georgie (Andrew Diego) seems to gravitate towards her but she has no idea why, which causes friction with Johnny. The distribution company has requested that reviews of the film keep spoilers light so I won’t be going into specific plot points but suffice to say that Tara’s investigation leads her into a mystery that she’s not expecting.
There are a few things that hamper the film. An intrusive score is used for too much of the film and it quickly loses its effectiveness. The aim seems to be to keep you on the edge of your seat for the film’s duration but it’s simply too distracting. The mystery at the heart of the film unravels incredibly slowly and with a small cast of characters, it’s not all that hard to figure out the plots twists and turns. The film’s biggest problem though is the dialogue, which is clunky and far too padded. This should have been a slick 90-minute film but dragged out to nearly two hours, it becomes a slog to get through.
The two lead actors – Tara Nichol Caldwell and Joshua Malekos – turn in adequate performances but they struggle to rise above the poor script. There’s a fair amount of amateur delivery, with both actors struggling to convince as their characters. It’s also hard to believe that they’re in love as they’re barely any chemistry between them at all. Unfortunately the supporting cast fares even worse, with some truly poor performances.
‘Lyvia’s House’ isn’t a mystery I’d recommend you invest time in. There are similar films and stories out there that tread the same ground and honestly, they’re much better in terms of their execution. The film is too long, the mystery isn’t that interesting and the script really needed a few more rewrites before it was used for filming. You can see that the intentions of the cast and crew were well-meaning but sadly the film just isn’t very good.
Cast: Tara Nichol Caldwell, Joshua Malekos, Ann Marie Gideon, Andrew Diego Director: Niko Volonakis Writer: Patricia V. Davis Certificate: Unrated Duration: 116 mins Released by: Stonecutter Media Release date: 1st October 2024
