Dir. Tesh Guttikonda & Mitfch Oliver (2024)
A family on a road trip must survive the night inside a remote house.
Out of all of the streaming services, Tubi has perhaps the most varied quality. The films that they allow users to stream run the gamut from some of the best horror every made to... Tubi originals, which are not the best horror movies ever made. It's rare to find a Tubi original that will really scratch your horror itch, as they tend to be cheaply made, relatively slow moving, and generally not up to snuff (no pun intended) with what you'd find from other studios, even the indie ones. I was recommended this film by one of our contributors, The Bearden of Knowledge, and I had to hold my nose going in, expecting it to be more of the same. It is most certainly not, as Lowlifes is one of the better films I've watched period on the streaming platform.
It's a difficult film to really discuss the plot without giving too much away, so I'll largely keep from doing so. The basic story in the film involves a family of four who are on vacation and are forced to stay with a backwoods family inside their desolate farmhouse. The twists and turns are plentiful, however, preventing this from becoming a straightforward backwoods slasher and serving as a cross between The Hills Have Eyes and You're Next. It's a super fun film, way gorier than I expected, and even the (relatively expected) plot twists are handled surprisingly well.
The actors do a fantastic job in the film, far outperforming expectations. The family at the center of the story, made up of Amy (Amanda Fix), Jeffrey (Josh Zaharia), Kathleen (Elyse Levesque), and Keith (Matthew MacCaull) are excellent, especially MacCaull as the family patriarch. Likewise, the backwoods family all do phenomenal jobs in their roles, especially Brenna Llewellyn as Savannah. They all do a tremendous job of turning the film on its head, each character having a lot to love about them and each actor, in turn, giving the characters a depth that you don't usually find in films like this.
The gore really is fantastic as well, with some of the scenes being downright disgusting. It hits the perfect spot as a mixture of slasher and home invasion, a nice mishmash of genres and all of them done well. As I said, it's a little difficult to get too much into the film without spoilers, but it's a delightfully deranged flick that would feel at home had it been made in the mid-80's. It's a perfect film for horror fans, and it provides really everything you'd want from a film like this. If nothing else, it will give me pause before dismissing Tubi originals at first glance, because this one is a certified banger.
Who this movie is for: Backwoods horror lovers, Twisty horror fans, People who don't judge books by their covers
Bottom line: Lowlifes is a much better film than I expected, and it's absolutely worth your time. Tubi knocked it out of the park with this one, a film that would be every bit as much at home in the 80's as it is today. The gore is excellent, the actors all give fantastic performances, and this one was just a joy all the way around. It's a twisty horror, and though it's not that hard to predict where it's going, it's a hell of a lot of fun getting there. Check this one out today for free on Tubi.
