Back in the day, when a singer would suddenly hit it big, the record company (or more often the former record company that had signed the artist) scrambled to re-release old material in an effort to cash in on the newfound popularity.

I swear I have no idea why I remember this particular example, but…Michael Bolton. Seriously.

Using that template, a film called ‘Animosity’, which was released to little notice or acclaim in 2013, is back out this week. Why? Because writer/director Brendan Steere made a flick called  The VelociPastor, and a lot of influential folks dug it when it was released in 2019.

So. Animosity.

A newlywed couple are buying a house that seems way too big and way too remote for a doctor (him) and a composer scoring a horror flick (her) with no kids. The lady selling the house seems awfully glad to be getting TF out of there, and even mentions that she may have left some things behind.

Mike (Marcin Paluch) and Carrie (Tracy Willet) Bonner barely get unpacked when she has a run in with a super weird, gun-toting neighbor in the woods and another couple come over to say hello who husband seems to know, but wife has never met them, as far as she knows.

So far, we have some decent kindling for a film that never quite catches fire. 

Yes, there is a reason Mike is unbothered by the scary neighbor and the creepy couple. The movie raises compelling questions, but doesn’t have the writing chops, acting abilities, or, frankly, the budget, to show and tell us the story in a more cogent way. And certainly, it is unable to provoke much in the way of scares.

It is often said that a director’s first film is really just meant to help him get his second film, the one with a real budget and professional actors, made. In that sense, Brendan Steere succeeded immensely with Animosity. After all, it helped him get a greenlight for, god I love this title so much, The Velocipastor.

But purchasing Animosity will be just for collectors – completists of Steere’s earliest work. 

It’s available now on digital.