The unfortunate thing about this movie is there are some genuinely good elements in it which were utterly wasted on a forgettable story.The cinematography is great. Scenes are (mostly) well shot with some interesting artistic flair. The way the camera work is done for some sequences is distinct and memorable, and reminded me of Stanley Kubrick in places. The handheld camera style at tense moments uses the same trick as with found footage movies, making you feel closer to the action, and almost making you feel like a character yourself at times. It's just a pity that during the more tense action sequences, they resorted to clichés like shaky cam and inexplicably flashing lights.The setting also has a lot of potential. A remote, isolated house by a lake, surrounded by snow, giving a real sense of isolation. Unfortunately, that feeling is completely squandered in favour of the house's dimly lit and claustrophobic interior. And then at the end when you realise that a neighbouring house is not actually very far away.Unfortunately, all of this setup eventually gives way to a lacklustre story which seemingly makes up for a lack of substance by making nearly every scene far too drawn out. Everything goes on for just a little bit longer than it needs to and it makes the whole movie feel... tiresome.To be honest, it felt like half the movie was a long shouting match between three dysfunctional siblings, full of ultimately inconsequential information. I found myself wondering at one point if the plot was ever going to progress beyond three people standing around yelling. It eventually did, but this whole thing amounted to very little beyond an overlong setup for the disappointingly brief section of actual horror. Which would have been more impactful if the scriptwriter had given us any reason to care about the characters.The ending felt tacked on and contrived, thanks to a complete lack of foreshadowing or setup. Or maybe it was buried somewhere in the scene with all the shouting? It's hard to say.Ultimately, this movie felt like a waste of time. And there wasn't even an actual pod anywhere to be seen.

I decided to put this on after watching Darling on Netflix and subsequently looking up more from Mickey Keating as I really enjoyed that offering. 5 minutes into this movie I was hooked, and stayed that way until the end. The only reason I wouldn't rate this film higher is because it isn't very ambitious, but what it aims for it does pretty well. This is a B movie, and I don't want to say any more than that because I don't want to spoil it. In fact I'm angry at Netflix because the images on the film's page contain spoilers, I recommend going into it knowing absolutely nothing. Lauren Ashley Carter is really good in the film, yes her character is extremely wildly emotional which some may find annoying, but I found her very entertaining. If you go into this expecting a decent B movie with a simple plot then you should be satisfied, there is certainly emphasis here on style and atmosphere, the story won't impress you as its one we've seen countless times before but it does what it sets out to do and delivers a little bit of suspense, mystery and horror on a low budget and at under 80 minutes it's brisk and easy to watch.

Pod is proof that anyone can make a movie. It's also proof that Netflix has no set standard for what content they will stream.With a total of five credited characters this low budget indie film failed catastrophically. About a psychotic ex-army man who has captured a "pod", the movie looks like something dug up out of the discarded ideas of X-Files. I half way expected to see David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.Martin (Brian Morvant) did his best Brad Pitt 12 Monkeys impression to convince the audience he was really crazy. Me, personally, I can only listen to so much rambling and incoherent speech for so long before I start to go crazy myself.We have to endure a good chunk of the movie with Martin rambling and his brother and sister trying to convince him to leave his home in the woods. The bulk of it is pure cacophony as it's difficult to make out anything any of them is saying. Then to add to the headache inducing noise was a terrible musical score. The music was horribly loud and misplaced. I don't need "scary" music when someone is simply driving from one place to the next. I don't need more overbearingly loud stringed instruments when people are talking. They tried to use the music to set the mood which would've been OK if the mood was annoying.To further the chaos the cameraman would zoom in and out and shake the camera to simulate fear, angst and panic. It looked more like someone following a police officer on foot in an episode of COPS. As if they didn't know if they wanted to be a traditional film or a POV film.Besides the picturesque views of the lake and other shots there was nothing satisfactory from this movie. It wasn't scary, it wasn't unique, it wasn't thrilling, it wasn't even comedic in its failure.I'll end my review with this one quote to give you an idea of the "quality" of this movie. Ed (Dean Cates) says, "If dad saw this place he'd be spinning in his grave." Really!?

This is my first IMDb review; however I'd like to think I'm a film aficionado with good taste in movies. I'm the type of viewer that, if watching from home or online, I will only give a movie a few minutes to catch my interest before turning it off or switching to something else.I thought this film was extremely well-acted, well-shot, and just overall well-done. The scenery and setting of the film was outstanding. The cinematography was great, and the acting was very well done as well- especially from the character Martin. The movie had a unique plot, and the antagonist was very unexpected. If I wanted to dig real deep, I might actually be able to find some sort of political statement being made about the effects of war on our veterans, PTSD, and the harsh methods that are sometimes used to treat them; but that might be digging a bit too deep. My only complaint is with the arrival of the final character. His acting, though brief, was the worst of the bunch; along with his $5 Walmart walkie-talkie, cliché trench coat and fedora, etc. The ending of the movie is definitely a cliffhanger and more than invites a sequel.Overall, I thought this was a pretty good horror/sci-fi film (leaning more toward sci-fi), and most definitely worth a watch.