PLOT SUMMARY: Four friends go searching for the Half-faced girl on a secluded island. They are soon faced with a living nightmare.
Writing can be a real challenge because whether or not you're working on fiction or non-fiction, conducting research becomes the essential part of the process.
Some writers find it easy to conduct their research online, after all, the internet is a vast library of knowledge and pretty much every topic under the sun.
Then there are those who actually visit places and meet people they are writing about or basing their characters on.
Now, this can be a bit expensive because you'll probably have to pay a small sum at least in ticket fares and lodging, so only a few writers can accomplish investing an amount for research.
The rest of us writers are sort of starving, waiting for that one opportunity when they will be noticed and earn a few bucks to afford bread and butter. Or at least half a loaf.
Anyway, it's fun to watch movies and read stories about writers who can go on trips on a whim just so they can do a bit of research.
The Resort takes it up a notch though. The actors all look like models and the focus is more on their toned bodies and makeup that never comes off. I mean, sure, makeup is damn important when you are on screen, but for the sake of authenticity towards certain scenes, the makeup usually is toned down to show the characters' anguish.
They are running away from monsters and ghouls after all, yet the hair and makeup stay intact throughout it all. Even when a character perishes. There will be a line of blood on the face but the makeup...flawless. It kinds of takes away the seriousness of the scene.
So in many ways, The Resort looks like an attempt to promote modelling and makeup.
And one more thing, the editing in a few places needed work. There are at least two noticeable instances where the scenes and joined after a cut was called and just doesn't flow seamlessly.
THE RESORT Movie Plot
The movie begins with two security officers roaming around and hearing noises. One of them decides to scare the other even though the latter claims he almost had a second heart attack. He looks young and we are supposed to understand that his job is that strenuous that his cardiac health is at risk.
Soon enough, one of the security guards is pulled away into the darkness. What happens to the other security officer is unknown.
Soon we meet four friends: Sam, Chris, Lex and Bree. Out of this, Lex is the writer who needs to research ghost sightings, so when her birthday comes up, her friends convince her to go to Hawaii to look for the ghost called the Half-faced girl.
In order to convince her, Lex is shown a video of the resort which lays abandoned on the Island because of an incident wherein a girl was attacked and had half her face torn off. The perpetrators were never punished for their crime so the girl roams the resort in search of them so she could punish them herself.
Lex has her reservations but it is Hawaii and the others think it will be an exciting thing to do as friends and make memories.
They set about on their little adventure taking rides in helicopters and boats to reach the resort.
When they have to hike up a trail to reach the resort, Chris and Bree get busy talking about something in the background and taking multiple pictures in front of trees every two minutes.
Sam and Lex have a forced conversation about their beliefs in the supernatural. They have nothing original to add to the argument on whether ghosts exist or not.
Sam's argument is about religions and supernatural stories being created to put fear into people, Lex thinks there has to be an afterlife and that her belief stems from her encounter with her dead grandmother.
Soon enough the four think they are lost and consult a board nailed to a tree that is supposed to be a map. Lex wants to reach the resort soon because they have only a couple of hours before the boat is going to come back to pick them up. The other three want to frolic in the waterfall.
Lex thinks it is stupid to waste time like that but she's wearing a bikini underneath her top and doesn't take too much time to be convinced to shed her clothes and dive right in.
According to Lex, as she tells the detective listening to her case later, that was the last time she felt peace.
The four finally get out and dry themselves and apply their makeup and adjust their hairstyles for the next part of the story.
Sam has to relieve himself and goes away a short distance from the group. He sees someone standing and peering at him. He calls his friends and they all think they are seeing a ghost by the tree.
Only Chris is brave enough to go forward and investigate. It's a sheet someone tied to a tree. The friends laugh it off and head off to the resort.
When they reach, they find the whole building abandoned and no way to get in, so Sam comes up with a genius idea to throw bricks through the window. Who is there to report him for vandalism anyway?
The others try to be shocked at his behaviour but are obviously glad to find a way in and take more pictures.
Lex finds it fascinating to take pictures in front of a cracked mirror. When she thinks she looks dumb with her backpack on, she hands it over to Chris who takes the picture but then leaves it behind as the group moves forward.
It is now more than forty-five minutes and all we have seen is four friends posing in front of pictures.
The director must realise it too because the very next instead, there's a noise, the friends go to investigate and can't find anything. They see that the sky is dark and they need to leave in order to catch the boat that will take them home.
They can't find an opening nor remember how they entered in the first place. Chris has an idea to dig near the fence like a cartoon character and come out the other side.
Lex isn't too keen to touch the sand and spoil her manicure so she comes up with an excuse to look for her backpack. The other friends decide they too don't want to spoil their clothes and get dirt under their nails so pretend to go help Lex search for her backpack.
Inside, they are shocked to find a dead coyote near the window and blood everywhere. Lex's backpack is right next to it, moved from the room where she actually left it.
The friends rack up their knowledge on coyotes and whether or not they can be found in Hawaii.
They hear more noises and see a woman in a white gown. They freak out and run away.
On the top floor of the resort, they find a parked truck and Bree gets into it only to be locked inside. Before Sam, who loves breaking glass, can throw more things at the windshield, the truck moves forward and crashes through the railing and falls below.
THE RESORT Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Lex tries to reach for her friend and Chris has to hold her back. Sam goes down to see the obvious just as Chris tells Lex that no one survives a crash like that.
Sam finds Bree with her makeup and hair intact but her eyes wide open. She's dead.
Sam joins the others and they all see the half-faced girl behind a pillar. They freak out but Sam is caught and has half of his skin from his face torn off. He is then possessed and chases his friends.
Soon enough, Chris, who looks like a bodybuilder, falls over as Sam advances. He screams at Lex to go just before Sam stomps on his head like a rotten orange. Blood is squirted everywhere.
The half-faced girl comes and rewards Sam by peeling away all the skin from his face.
Lex runs away and finds herself in a void.
She's at the hospital now and telling the police detective that she saw a white light and then woke up in the hospital and doesn't remember how she got there or how her selfies got deleted from her phone.
The detective goes to one side to talk on the phone and Lex has an inkling to take a picture of him. She notices red veins on his arm and realizes he's dead too.
The detective comes to scream on her face and she stumbles and falls off her bed. She scrambles forward only to find she's no longer at the hospital but still at the resort.
For some reason, she dreamed of being in the hospital and in safe hands. She sees herself in a zombie state and realizes she's also become a victim of the half-faced girl.
This part made no sense. Why did Lex see herself in the hospital? Was the half-faced girl playing tricks on her mind. Why did the others not get the same privilege? Why did they have their heads busted open?
The legend of the half-faced girl lives on...
Scare scale: 2.5/5
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