Intervention-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

 PLOT SUMMARY: After Laura loses her memory, she must rely on her friends to help her remember what happened. However, she soon realizes her friends may be lying to her.

Ever since the pandemic hit and film shootings had to be halted due to safety measures, we had to wait for  lot of anticipated movies to release. A lot of movies had delayed releases, some releasing after more than a year. And then there were some movies that didn't receive a theatrical release and came straight to streaming platforms.

I would imagine some studious must have lost money when movies didn't release on time or because the movies didn't get  a fair chance at the box office because it didn't get a theatrical release.

When the pandemic refused to slow down imminently, some studios took creative approaches to reduce costs. The storylines too became relevant instead of tiptoeing around the COVID theme.

Truly, the pandemic has created havoc.

Horror Movies especially took the "Zoom" approach. Actors could stay in their houses, isolated, maintaining a safe distance. The budget could be slashed by hiring minimum characters and having everything shot on camera phones and computer screens.

HOST was one of the horror movies that managed to provide scares effectively using just a few actors, and a basic storyline of friends meeting up to conduct a séance and inviting something evil into their homes.

INTERVENTION is another Movie that relies on computer screens and video chat applications to further a story.

But does the movie provide enough scares to keep you hooked?

INTERVENTION has an interesting story and some of the twists work and the climax is interesting. The story is however held back by weak editing and slow pacing, the bane of most thriller movies.

The movies first few minutes drag long enough for an impatient viewer to turn off the movie. I'm glad I decided to continue but the temptation to switch off the movie was there because of how sluggish the opening scene was.

But then the friends meet, the conversation reveals a hidden truth and things finally get a little interesting.

INTERVENTION Movie Plot

Laura is in her room, mumbling to herself, dressed in a gray suit and in a room that suspiciously looks like it is a hospital room. It is but it isn't confirmed until the end.

Laura gets into her computer and finds several notes she left for herself and a video that explains her condition. She has amnesia which allows her only to remember a few things before she goes to sleep and wakes up the next day and forgets everything about herself again.

She is going through the notes and finding weird clues like "Don't trust them" and the number 5 everywhere when she receives a notification for an incoming video call.

She takes it and meets four women who sing Happy Birthday for her. Laura is pleased but confesses she doesn't recognise them. Her computer wallpaper shows three other women next to her but only two of them have shown up in the video call.

The other two are Diana and Sophie. The recognizable friends are Carly and Olivia.

Carly throws around attitude and rolls her eyes. Olivia mopes around till the very end. Sophie watches Laura keenly while Diana is a bit aloof and brusque.

Laura acts difficult and tells her friends outright that she doesn't remember them and that why should she believe them anyway. Her friends are pretty patient at first and offer to help her piece together her life by trying to connect the clues she left on the computer. Laura agrees to share the screen and show them her notes. She finds a folder labelled Nell and opens it.

They come across a photo that has been half erased. Laura notices a tattoo on the arm that is slung around her shoulders. Carly and Olivia have the same tattoos and tell Laura that they all get it together. Sure enough, Laura does have the same tattoo on her arm...but oops, in the photo she doesn't. And if Carly said that they all got it together but the girl in the photo, who Carly says is her, has the tattoo but Laura doesn't.

Laura gets mad at them and picks on Olivia who looks on the verge of crying. She logs off and the others take a break too. Sophie calls Olivia to get her back in the meeting but forgets to turn off her mic and so let's Laura hear her tell Olivia that they aren't really betraying Laura and it is for her own good. Olivia just wants to tell her already but agrees to come back.

Olivia comes back and Laura notices how visibly upset she still looks. Laura's frustrations grow.

She gets upset and picks up her bottle of pills as that is the only thing that can calm her.

And that is when she notices what is written on the label.

INTERVENTION Ending Explained with Spoilers

Laura gives a short laugh and then brings the bottle to the screen.

She points at the name of the doctor who prescribed the medication: Dr Sophie. The patient's name is listed as Nell.

Turns out Sophie isn’t a friend but Laura's doctor. And Laura isn't Laura but Nell.

Diana isn't her friend anymore but a police detective who is handling Nell's case. They all want to know what happened to Laura.

It is revealed then that Nell was a child that was born in a cult. After the cult members mysteriously died, only Nell survived and there was speculation that she had something to do with it considering the way she was abused.

She then grew up to be a troubled girl who befriended a girl called Laura and with whom she became obsessed with. However, Laura too had befriended Nell because of her tragic childhood.

Then one night, Laura invites her friends over to Nell's childhood home, much to Nell's surprise.

They tie up Nell and try to perform a ritual on her. Nell manages to free herself and when Laura stabs her, Nell pounces on her.

Sophie and Diana both plead with Nell to listen to them but she doesn't and leaves the chat. Then she deletes all the notes on her computer.

She sits on the floor and removes the knife from a box, the same knife that Laura tried to use on Nell.

She puts it to her neck and then pulls away, saying: nice try.

Clearly, she's possessed. She sits and hums, pleased with herself.

The ritual has worked.

The movie starts off exceedingly and frustratingly slow to the point that you may find yourself wanting to turn it off.

But wait for a few more minutes and when the story is revealed bit by bit, things do get a tad interesting.

Watch this movie to pass a boring afternoon. It may not be on your must-watch list but it does have some potential.

Scare Scale: 

Check out this movie on Amazon Prime Video

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