By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
Don't sleep on
"The Tank." While it may seem like a simple and dry sounding title for a psychological horror movie, trust me, “The Tank,” from director/screenwriter/producer
Scott Walker, serves up some pretty big thrills and chills.
It's 1978 and Ben Adams (Matt Whelan, TV's "The Gone"), his wife Jules (Luciane Buchanan, TV's "The Night Agent") and their adorable seven-year-old-daughter Reia (Zara Nausbaum, "The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith") are living in Oakland, California.
Ben and Jules own a pet store called "Raining Cats and Dogs" and they both attend U.C. Davis’s renowned veterinarian school. Although money is tight, they're doing OK.
It almost seems too good to be true when an old lawyer named Amos Tilbury (Mark Mitchinson, "Evil Dead Rise") drops by the store and wants to talk with them about some coastal property near Oregon that Ben's late mother left him. The thing is, Ben had no clue that his mom even had any property in Oregon.
Maybe she wanted to surprise him with the news. Well, surprise, surprise.
Naturally, they want to check out the place. So, Ben, Jules, and Reia head out in the old station wagon which honestly doesn't look like it could make it from Oakland to Davis, much less all the way to Oregon. It's a long drive and the place is definitely off the beaten path.
When they arrive, it's not what either Ben or Jules envisioned. The place is a dump. It's rundown and looks like it's been abandoned for 100 years. I don't think Chip and Joanna Gaines would want to fix up this place.
However, once they start cutting bushes, pulling weeds and stripping some of the boarding away, the house opens to a spectacular view. It has potential.
Jules wants to clean the place up and put it on the market to sell. In that location and with that view, they could probably get a nice chunk of change.
While tidying up the cottage, they find some old pictures and newspaper articles about Ben's family. As he begins to survey the area outside, he discovers a thick concrete slab that slides open and leads down to an underground tank. The fool wants to see what's down there.
What he finds lurking underground has something to do with an old family curse on the property. That would explain why no one has bought the place.
When Ben, Jules and Reia shut it down for the night, they start hearing some creaky and spooky noises. It only took one time for Reia to notice the door slowly shutting on its own and a shadowy figure outside the window before she tells her parents she wants to leave the house. That's a smart kid.
You get a sense of what's in store for Ben and his family when "The Tank" opens with a sequence involving a man (Jack Barry, "Cruella") being pulled down into the tank while his wife (Holly Shervey, "Millennial Jenny") and daughter (Coco White) slept.
"The Tank" is one of those movies where the less you know initially the better, but it's quite a crafty, creature feature.
Check out “The Tank” which opens in theaters April 21 and On Digital April 25.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Look At This Trailer For
"THE TANK"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.