DMovies - Your platform for thought-provoking cinema

The Vault

Dan Bush's hybrid of horror and bank heist stars James Franco; it does work on some levels, but it eventually loses the plot - on VoD on Friday, August 27th

One big star producing and starring in the movie? Tick. Two strong female protagonists? Tick. Innovative genre device? Tick. Major twist at the end? Tick. Predictable moral message? Tick. The Vault has all the ingredients of a highly formulaic 21st century horror. It will surprise and scare you, but it’s in no way a memorable film that will stay with you for a long time.

Estranged sisters Vee Dillon (Taryn Manning) and Leah Dillon (Francesca Eastwood) decide to rob a bank with the support of some accomplices. Later in the movie we realise that they are, in reality, kind-hearted people engaging in a crime for a very altruistic reason: in order to help their mother. Despite their good intentions, they fall prey to a vengeful entity inhabiting the bank’s vault. The institution saw a robbery-turned-massacre decades earlier, and the evil spirit of the dead criminal and his victims just refuse to budge. Will they now impose the same horrific fate on the two sisters and their associates?

There are some very good jump scares in the movie, and some very disgusting gore. The problem is that the storyline becomes a bit hackneyed after a while, and the twist at the end is highly predictable from the moment James Franco’s character (the bank manager) first shows up in the movie. The very last scene is the biggest conceivable cliché of horror, and you might find it funny rather than scary.

This is uncompromising entertainment, still fun to watch. Eastwood is very good, particularly with wig on (pictured above): she deftly blends moral hesitation with criminal determination. Taryn Manning is also very convincing. The two sisters deliver a passionately dysfunctional duologue. And Franco is very sexy with his corporate moustache, in the skin of the ultra-good guy who will risk everything else for the security others.

The Vault is in cinemas across the UK on Friday, September 8th (2017). On Amazon Prime on Friday, August 27th (2021).


By Victor Fraga - 29-08-2017

Victor Fraga is a Brazilian born and London-based journalist and filmmaker with more than 20 years of involvement in the cinema industry and beyond. He is an LGBT writer, and describes himself as a di...

DMovies Poll

Are the Oscars dirty enough for DMovies?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Most Read

Forget Friday the 13th, Paranormal Activity and the [Read More...]
Just a few years back, finding a film [Read More...]
A lot of British people would rather forget [Read More...]
Pigs might fly. And so Brexit might happen. [Read More...]
Sexual diversity is at the very heart of [Read More...]
Films quotes are very powerful not just because [Read More...]

Read More

The top 10 dirtiest horror films of all times

 

DMovies team - 24-10-2016

This Halloween indulge in sex with aliens, watch Islamic spirits travel inside missiles, witness a child eat her parents, or perhaps have a forced sex reassignment surgery! Deep dive into the darkest, most twisted and thought-provoking horror films ever made [Read More...]

I am Michael

Justin Kelly
2015

Jeremy Clarke - 03-04-2017

James Franco plays real life gay rights activist, magazine publisher and blogger Michael Glatze who undergoes a crisis of identity and religion to become a straight, married Christian pastor - out now on DVD and VoD [Read More...]

Goat

Andrew Neel
2016

Maysa Monção - 02-06-2016

Hazing, drug use, bestiality and many other fraternity passing rituals: this very American college film is a tale of violence and twisted masculinity produced by James Franco - live right now from the Sundance London Film Festival [Read More...]

Facebook Comment

Website Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *