Horror Movie Review: The Nest (2021)

The Nest (also known as The Bewailing) promises an unsettling experience that combines fear, anxiety, and body horror. A promise that it fails to live up to, even if it does enough to be a memorable watch.

Written by Jennifer Trudrung, directed by James Suttles, and starring Sarah Navratil, Kevin Patrick Murphy, Maple Suttles, Drez Ryan, and Dee Wallace. The Nest is a slow film, and while that initially works in its favour, it eventually leads to frustration and annoyance when it simply never picks up. What could have been quite special, because it has special moments, ends up feeling run of the mill.

On the outside; Beth (Sarah Navratil), her husband Jack (Kevin Patrick Murphy), and their young daughter Meg (Maple Suttles) look like the perfect family. Except there is no such thing, and internally, they have been struggling ever since Beth got addicted to pain medication. She has managed to beat the addiction though, and the relationships in the family are repairing.

One day, the family stop at a house sale, and Meg gets enamoured with a small teddy, so they agree to buy it from the odd owner.

It’s a horror film, so we all know this teddy is not going to be as cute and innocent as it seems. Especially as the owner goes back inside, revealing a hellscape that looks more like the nest of some insect. Yep, you guessed it, the belly of this bear is home to something, and shortly after visiting a park, this ‘thing’ inside the bear ends up inside Meg.

The first 10-15 minutes of The Nest is very compelling, setting up the story well, giving strong character introductions, and hinting at some really intense visuals. Alas, it’s downhill from this point as some time later, Meg’s personality has changed significantly and her parents are concerned. They are unaware of the insect inside of her, and it doesn’t seem to be causing her any physical health complications.

That’s because its goal isn’t to kill its host, but rather, control them and spread. It wants a host that can be used to hold eggs and breed even more. Which just so happens to be Beth. She needs to be made ready though, protected and kept docile, which is where Meg comes in. Becoming increasingly dependant on her mother, who, feeling intense guilt for what she put her family through, is all too willing to cave to Meg’s demands. Willing to ignore so much of her child’s behaviour in favour of having her approval.

However, she can only ignore so much, eventually.

As tense and uncomfortable an experience as The Nest can be, and it often is, the over-riding feeling is one of frustration as it plods along. Frustration at the lack of forward momentum the story has, frustration at badly written character behaviours, and frustration at the lack of visual horror. Every time it seems as though we might get something, the bear belly opening like a gaping mouth, the film cuts away to show us the aftermath. Which is always another person being made part of the ‘hive mind’.

This could be forgivable if the film was moving at a decent pace though, and it’s not. There’s building up dread, and then there’s turning that dread into dullness, and The Nest becomes quite dull.

It doesn’t help that a lot of the characters are quite unlikable too, even if the cast are very good. It’s hard to have sympathy for Beth as she chooses to ignore so much and starts to look like a bit of an idiot. Then there is Jack, who doesn’t really do anything, aside from gaslight, and then there is Meg.

Oh Meg, a character so irritating, that she becomes downright hateable. Now, this is the point. The insect in her turns her into a highly manipulative person who plays on her mother’s fears and Maple Suttles is a mighty fine actor. That being said, she is not fun to watch and the more the film goes on, the more you’ll start to wish she would just get off the screen.

But hey, The Nest isn’t supposed to be a fun film, right? No, it’s dark and twisted, but many other films like this know how to keep the viewer engaged. The Nest simply forgets, or decides to ignore this fact, and figures you’ll keep watching in the hope of seeing some garish body horror. Which you will, right at the end, and while the effects are outstanding, it’s way to late to change anything.