For every Ryan Coogler, Rian Johnson or Denis Villeneuve that explode from the indie filmmaking scene into blockbuster movies, there are certainly many who find themselves fizzling out right from the start, and Acoryé White and Patrycja Kepa are unfortunately in the latter camp with The Grove

. The sci-fi horror-thriller marks their third collaboration together after the supernatural horror film Trinket Box and romantic drama short Right Way to Love, and yet it doesn’t seem like they’re growing in any meaningful direction as filmmakers.

Co-written and co-directed by White and Kepa, with the former also leading the movie’s cast, The Grove centers on Black Ops soldier TJ returning home to his fiancée six months after undergoing an experimental procedure to give him enhanced abilities to excel in combat. As they go on a weekend trip with their friends for a homecoming celebration, TJ forgets his medication and begins to drink, against his doctor’s orders. Things begin to go awry and old tensions among the group threaten more than just the derailing of their festivities.

The Grove’s Story Might Be The Thinnest I’ve Ever Seen Put To Film

The Majority Of The Movie Could Be Cut Out & Affect Nothing

With a premise that promises a mix of body and psychological horror along with character drama, The Grove certainly sounds full of potential on paper. Unfortunately, the film clearly didn’t know what to do with its story, as the first 15 or so minutes and final 30 minutes are the only sections to actually explore TJ’s deterioration. Even the descent into madness we see of him isn’t all that well-explored, with very little explanation given as to the experiment, or the reason behind his actions.

What ultimately makes this all feel worse is that, with a runtime of approximately 100 minutes, The Grove spends an hour straight on its characters partying and bickering with one another over relationships, including two characters essentially flirting with each other, despite one of them being in a relationship. The script is so poorly constructed that the scenes feel like they have no actual structure in place and offer very little agency for any characters involved. This is especially true of the women in the ensemble, who all feel like they only exist to be arm candy for the men.

One of The Grove‘s other glaring story issues is that it doesn’t actually have an ending, but rather one of the most blatant sequel setups I’ve seen in a long time. There’s certainly something to be said for a movie that leaves some questions unanswered, be it for the audience to discuss or for the possibility of leaving the door open for a follow-up to explore, but there should still be a satisfying enough conclusion to the story at hand before doing so. Instead, I was baffled by how I had more questions than answers at the end.

The Grove’s Direction Is Visually Unappealing

If You’re Going To Shoot At Night, Make Sure We Can See What’s Going On

In addition to a poorly crafted script, The Grove also suffers from lackluster direction. Throughout the film, the directing duo attempt to infuse a few stylish flares into their visual palette, including hazy vignetting and Steadicam sH๏τs for some of the so-called intense scenes, but it actually ends up working in contrast to the movie’s look. Many scenes had me not only questioning their need to exist in the film, but why they looked as poorly sH๏τ as they did.

The biggest example of this is The Grove‘s final act, in which the group of characters are all running through the forest, hiding from TJ at night after he becomes violent. In a move rarely seen since the original Blair Witch Project, it really seems like White and Kepa chose to use minimal extra lighting for the scene, or attempted to pᴀss off the daytime as nighttime by drastically reducing both the brightness and contrast. Whichever method was used, I found myself so taken out of the action simply because I could hardly see what was happening.

The Cast Delivers Underwhelming Performances

White’s Leading Role Is Very Reminiscent Of Another Infamous Filmmaker

To compound the movie’s problems is The Grove‘s cast, who all deliver underwhelming performances and make it all the harder to watch. The roster is certainly not helped by the poorly written script, but they also do very little to actually elevate the material. The combination of dialogue and performances underscores the caricature-like characterizations and stereotypes laid out in the script.

One of the biggest offenders of poor performers is White, who lacks any real charisma, emotion, or humor. He follows in the footsteps of Tommy Wiseau in putting himself at the forefront of the film in the belief of authentically playing his lead role while also having steamy scenes with his co-star. However, unlike The Room‘s writer/director/producer/star, The Grove isn’t bad enough to warrant an ironic rewatch. Rather, it’s a frustrating and boring waste of time.

The Grove hits theaters on April 4.