Review: 'The Wretched' is a no-frills horror thriller that showcases a young directing team's talent for execution

Filmmakers Brett and Drew Pierce, known collectively as The Pierce Brothers, have put together a quick and efficient little horror movie in “The Wretched,” generating some solid scares out of basic materials.

Ben (played by John-Paul Howard) is a teen who’s struggling through his parents’ divorce — we learn this with the explanation of why he’s got his arm in a cast. Ben travels up to the north end of Lake Michigan to spend the summer with his father, Liam (Jamison Jones), who operates the marina in a small vacation town. Ben takes a job at the marina, where he gets taunted by the rich kids partying on their parents’ boats, but he finds a friend in a feisty co-worker, Mallory (Piper Curda).

Then Ben notices strange doings in the house next door, where a young mom, Abbie (Zarah Mahler), starts taking nightly walks into the nearby woods. When Abbie’s 7-year-old son, Dillon (Blane Crockarell), comes over to hide from his mom, Ben suspects Abbie might be … well, better for the audience to discover that on their own.

The Pierce Brothers, who wrote and directed, traffic in some tired horror plot points. Of course, Ben has a shady past — and, because of it, neither his dad nor anyone else believes him when he seeks help saving Dillon from the mysterious menace threatening him. Oh, and there are some predictable complications involving Liam’s new girlfriend, Sara (Azie Tesfai, currently on “Supergirl”).

But the Pierces — in only their second movie, after the 2011 zombie comedy “Deadheads” — redeem themselves well with a smart plot twist late in the game, one that elevates the stakes and the terror. The brothers also are masters of execution, and they deploy both physical and computer-generated visual effects to a satisfyingly unsettling conclusion. “The Wretched” is a no-frills horror movie, but the Pierce Brothers’ solid technique will leave horror fans eager to see what they do next.

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‘The Wretched’

★★★

Begins streaming on Friday, May 1, on various platforms. Not rated, but probably R for violence and gore, and some language. Running time: 95 minutes.