At The Movies: The Tank
The film starts with a scene from May 1946 where we see a man disappearing into an underground water tank at night with a lantern – presumably to do some maintenance. We hear screams then see him horrifically dragged back in when attempting to climb out! Switch to Oakland California in 1978 where struggling couple, Ben (Matt Whelan) and Jules (NZ/Tongan actor Luciane Buchanan), are running their pet store.
As they close shop for the day a lawyer comes in to see Ben about his late mother’s estate. Ben is shocked to hear he has inherited a sizeable piece of coastal real estate in Oregon, since his mother had never mentioned owning any property. He shrugs it off as possibly due to her being in a mental institution since the death of Ben’s father and older sister in a car accident.
They decide to drive to Oregon with their daughter Reia (Zara Nausbaum) to see what they have inherited. They clean the place up a bit, ready to stay for a while. Jules is puzzled as it looks like the place was vacated quickly as everything was left as it was – kitchen gear, furniture and personal items including photos and diaries. Ben goes into the tank to turn on the water pump, but is puzzled to find an old lantern on the bottom.
It is at night that things get interesting. Reia is woken up with noises near or in her bedroom and runs upstairs to alert her parents. Searching inside and out they come to the conclusion that it must be typical noises from an old house. When the water seems to be blocked next day, Ben goes back into the tank to fix the problem. He finds a small, strange dead creature on the bottom that neither he nor Jules can identify.
The secrets of the house are slowly unravelled from copies of newspaper clippings and Ben’s mother’s diary. Stranger things start to happen to the young family very quickly! They find the house creepy, so are relieved when they received a visit from a real estate agent who says she has a buyer offering a substantial sum to purchase the entire beautiful coastal property. After more strange noises and happenings, Jules can’t wait to get out of there. Let’s just hope they can!
Keep an eye out for this movie on the above streaming services to see what happens. Not a particularly great film, but certainly suspenseful.
Movie Review by John Glennie
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 100 minutes
Available to Rent or Buy from June 28 on Apple, Amazon, Google/YouTube, Microsoft, Foxtel, Fetch & Telstra.
