'The Lodge' Trailer: You're Not Ready For How Freaky This Movie Is

Ready for the next great horror movie? Good, because it's here, and it's called The Lodge. This supremely freaky nightmare from the director of Goodnight Mommy traps Riley Keough and two kids in a cabin during a blizzard, and proceeds to scare the living daylights out of you. Watch The Lodge trailer below.

I don't envy the marketing team working on The Lodge. While I'm by no means a spoilerphobe, this is one of those movies where the less you know, the better off you'll be. Directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala have a lot of nasty tricks up their sleeve, creating an unrelenting experience in the process. I saw The Lodge at Sundance, and I could feel how tense the audience was from nearly the first frame – and that tension never let up.

I know I'm running the risk of overselling this movie, but I don't care – I firmly believe this is one of the best horror films in years. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and then some. In The Lodge, youngsters Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh end up snowed-in with their future stepmother Riley Keough. Keough's character seems very nice, and she tries really hard to get her potential stepchildren to like her. But the kids aren't having it – they resent Keough, and want nothing more than for her to go away. As it turns out, Keough's character had a...troubling childhood, to say the least. A severely traumatic experience still haunts her, and threatens to rear its ugly head the longer she and the kids are trapped in the house.

And that's all I'm going to say! By reading that brief synopsis, you may think you know where this movie is going, but trust me, you don't. I wasn't a huge fan of Franz and Fiala's Goodnight Mommy, but The Lodge gave me everything I wanted, and more. I left the theater buzzing, a twisted grin on my face. As I wrote in my review:

I hate to come across as hyperbolic with films like The Lodge, and I'm sure there will be some viewers put-off by how languidly the film is paced, and how close to the vest it plays its cards. But I'm a hardened horror viewer, and while I love the genre with all my heart, I very rarely find a film that actually effects me on an emotional level. I'm always on the lookout for a movie that I find truly scary, and with the Lodge, I've definitely found it.

The Lodge, which also stars Richard Armitage and Alicia Silverstone, opens this year.