Since Halloween, Hulu has teamed up with Blumhouse (You know them for every horror franchise that isn’t The Conjuring) for an anthology series. Each month they create a new story based on the holiday of the month. So naturally when we looked at March we figured they’d do another St. Patrick’s Day themed horror film but instead director & writer James Roday takes us in a different direction. He quite literally adapts the “Ides of March” betrayal for the “#MeToo” era during women’s month. Treehouse is a poignant, enraging, and beautiful revenge story that makes a point.
Jimmie Simpson stars as celebrity chef Peter Rake, who finds himself embroiled in tabloid controversy. The divorced father retreats to his lavish family vacation estate in an attempt to let accusations blow over, he’s joined by his sister Gwen (Amanda Walsh) and the elderly groundskeeper Agnes (Nancy Linehan Charles). Gwen is called away her her District Attorney job which leaves Peter to his own devices, so he ends up inviting a neighboring group of girls over for dinner and gets embarrassingly drunk. He excuses himself, extends further hospitality, and passes out but when he wakes up is when Peter realizes his past is not something you can escape from and debts will be settled.
The rest of the cast is filled out with incredible talent and strong performances from Stephanie Beatriz, Sophia Del Pizzo, Julianna Guill, Shaunette Renee Wilson, and Mary McCormack as a coven of witches. Each one gets a chance to absolutely shine and one by one they all reveal their specific motivations for why they are at Peters.
The direction and imagery of this film is beautiful. It has some fantastic genre-specific moments but also manages to provide a different take on the witch story. The final act is one of the biggest mind twists I’ve witnessed. The messages are clear and the performances are delivered fantastically by the entire cast. This is a good movie worth a check out the next time you are browsing the streaming service.
3 out of 5
