Since no one else will say it– The Shining!
Firstly, I'm not saying I hate this film. Certainly, it could have been better. But for what it is, it's a valiant effort.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Now, right from her first time on screen, I thought Georgina Haig looked like Shelley Duvall with a peppering of Uma Thurman thrown in for good measure. With Shelley in mind, my mind went right to The Shining when she put on the blue-denim dress.
From there, I also thought of Jack Nicholson's limp as The Stranger started walking along the road after the accident. These connections were made obviously intentional unthreatening half of this film.
Once Slim found his way inside Marilyn's home, it was plain to see he would be Dick Hollorann shortly. What wasn't expected was lighting and shot's stolen directly from Kubrick's film. If you've seen both films it's easy to see; from the shots of The Stranger trying to get into the woman in the bathroom to him dragging the axe behind him.
I love spotting homages but when it's a direct copy as this, it becomes distracting as I'm thinking more of the reference than what I'm watching. Of course others films like Psycho, High Tension, and No Country for Old Men came to mind throughout, but The Shining seemed the most striking and obtrusive influence I've seen in a long time.
If this was more of a self-aware film, like Tarantino, it would be more acceptable. It did the No Country thing at the beginning without directly copying so I’m not sure why they needed to place the cameras and the lights in the same positions for the end of the film. I would have been much more happy with they took what Kubrick had and played off that riff instead of playing it note for note visually.
SPOILERS DONE!
I don’t want to call this average as an insult. Again, I did not hate this film. I loved the idea and atmosphere for such a slow and methodical film. Pulling influences from the Coens, Hitchcock, and Kubrick isn’t such a bad thing and could lead to something really great. Unfortunately, this came off as just satisfactory. I’d still suggest others curious to watch it but to advise not to expect to be blown away, just pacified. I would certainly be interested in more projects from these brothers in the future.