Into The Dark Ep. 6 Treehouse (2019) Horror Witches

 Into the Dark Ep 6:  Treehouse (2019)  The film centers around Peter Rake (Jimmi Simpson) a celebrity chef and poor excuse for a man who treats women badly. Even with the scenes of him with his tween daughter are not enough to make him a likable character. As his big scandal is about to hit the internet he decides to get away for the weekend at his parents mansion in the California hills. We see him interact with women as a predator but also as somewhat smooth. There is a dark secret he is holding that happened in the titular tree house on the grounds that has created distance between him and his sister. That relationship has been strained for years and when later we learn the secret it at least makes a lot of sense.
  The writer on this feature James Roday and Todd Harthan seem to want to write about #MeToo through this story but what are they saying?  They set us up with a guy who obviously is on the wrong side of that equation and treats women badly. We see this as he struggles to interact with a group of women who are staying near his house. Running into and attempting to flirt we get to see him a bit uncomfortable when they challenge his language.  After some quite awkward interactions where he is forced to verbally tread lightly even as he hopes to maneuver at least one of the women into his bed.  He invites them Elana (Stephanie Beatriz), Kara (Julianna Guill), Lilith (Mary McCormack), Marie (Shaunette Reneee Wilson), and Morgan(Sophia Del Pizzo) to dinner and wants to impress with his cooking talents. He is a celebrity chef after all and if there is one thing he really does well it is cook. After some more difficult conversation is suddenly feels faint, drunk and or a combination of both. This is the first turn in the film and although there have been signs that a change was coming it is startling in its sudden change of pace.
  All along in this film we see written in these little possibly supernatural bits. Peter seeing animals and then them disappearing, bugs crawling around the house that are not there when he squishes them, a bloody toilet? All leading the viewer down a path that something crazy is happening. When costumed figures come for him each in masks of the animals he has been seeing we learn what it is. The women are witches and say they have cast a spell on him causing paralysis. Peter arrogant takes a bit to understand. Our lead Kara is the sister of Becca who we learn killed herself after being raped by Peter when he was a teenager. Now the group are going to make him pay. They get him scared, really scared that they are going to kill him. They are breaking him down emotionally and making him deal with all his bad behavior over the years. In this section the women come across as very angry and vengeful for this abusive man. If this is the space the film stayed in it would be a fine revenge film. All the anger because each women in the coven have themselves or someone close who has abusive men in there lives. We learn what a crap ass wipe Peter is because they take turns identifying his crimes from assault to forcing kitchen staff to sleep with him and then get an abortion, we learn that his rape of the teen was just a first in a long line of abuse. So there is really know reason to care if this guy learns a lesson. The anger of the women is what it is all about and this would be a reasonable way to finish Peter's lesson but then there is a final turn.
  The hallucinogen fueled nightmare ends with him waking in his bed and the call he receives from Kara is a scared straight moment. He has been traumatized and now must stay non abusive to women or the witches will get him. The twist where we learn all the women including his sister were in on the adventure, which was pulled off with special effect tricks. Yes they are a bunch of women but the anger they showed Peter is gone. Now they see themselves as a force of good changing the attitude of abusers one man at a time. I am not sure I like this switcheroo, I sort of liked the idea of real witches getting these asshole men back.
  I am not sure what the message here is. We should think with all the anger (at least perceive by the mail writers) of the #MeToo movement could manifest into a secret cabal of women with the special effects skills to scare abusers straight one at a time. That they are angry but they would rather redeem men who are abusive than punish them? I guess my male mind would rather just punish bad behavior. I don't know. I suppose the fact that they showed this one really awful man as someone the women thought they could redeem is telling. Still they set it up that he has to live in fear the rest of his life. Is that a good thing? I guess deterrents instead of revenge is the approach this film looks to explore.