Four business partners meet face to face to put the finishing touches on their latest attempt to develop a killer app. After the team finds themselves captive in the basement of their manager’s home, they begin to unravel each other’s secret shames. Can they be forgiven before it’s too late?

Rosie (Annalise Nielsen), Eddie (Doug Bollinger), and Daisy (Timothy Laurel Harrison) meet up with their manager, Frank (Keith Collins), to develop a new app that they hope will take the world by storm. Little do they know, they each harbor a similarly grave secret which they will be forced to confront by the end of the night. With a brisk run time of 75 minutes, it would be almost impossible to truly discuss this film without diving into spoilers, so be forewarned that this analysis will not spare the plot. If you have any intention of watching The Samaritans I suggest you do so before continuing.

While the concept is promising and the performances feel genuine, there’s a glaring writing flaw that should be addressed. At a basic level, The Samaritans’ message is that the protagonists should have been good Samaritans when faced with the opportunity to help someone in dire need. In turn, they are tormented by the spirits of people they knew were dying and failed to help. The problem is that these scenarios are not at all equal. Frank’s failure to intervene or to call authorities when he witnesses a car wreck in a winter storm is entirely his fault, but it feels unfair to blame Daisy for an act of pure self-preservation. In one case the good deed is a simple phone call without negative consequence, in the other, it’s a phone call that would have likely resulted in bodily harm or death.

Rosie’s predicament is especially off-putting. Her “victim” is an old flame named James who committed suicide after she broke off their short-lived relationship. With the correct framing, this could have been sympathetic, but it clearly is not meant to be as James’ introduction involves sexually assaulting Rosie, who later reveals that James refused to believe she had ended the relationship and had spiraled into emotionally manipulative behavior and cyberstalking. It isn’t Rosie’s responsibility to reach out to James, but she is blamed for his death in the same way that Frank is blamed for not reporting a car wreck. The language of the movie would have us believe that this entire haunting is a form of revenge, but it’s unreasonable to posit that Rosie did anything worthy of vengeance in the first place.

It’s safe to say this is a film that is meant to thrive more in its writing and performances than its effects. That said, I can’t help but feel there are a few elements of the movie that would have benefited from an increased emphasis on said effects. Namely, all four characters are being held immobile in their seats by…nothing. The audience is meant to believe that the aggrieved spirits are somehow pinning the protagonists in place, which, while scary in concept, doesn’t translate well to the screen and is often humorous in a way that feels unintentional. Had our characters been held in place by the twine that is eventually used to strangle Daisy, or even the wire that is used as a perfunctory scare late in the film, the stakes would have felt immediately higher and the movie would require less suspension of disbelief. On the one hand, it’s necessary that our cast be allowed to move and leave their seats when they are possessed. On the other hand, I imagine the film’s imagery and threat would have been much improved by physical restraints that could have been animated by the spirits in the same way chains are used in the Hellraiser series.

Despite these flaws, I did find the cast to be decently engaging with a strong group dynamic. Eddie may be a living dad joke, but his half-baked attempts at lightheartedness lend a lot of authenticity to the movie and save the dialogue from feeling too rigid. I’d give props to every actor for their possessed performances, as these were almost unanimously stronger than their “normal” roles. This goes double for Keith Collins, who is genuinely creepy as James, and in a way that I honestly did not expect. The film’s music is also a high point, especially Olivia Bec’s original song which we hear both diegetically and again over the closing credits. For better or for worse, I can’t shake the feeling that The Samaritans is a perfect fit for the SyFy network– not in overall quality but in tone and production value. Take that as you will.