In 1985, Megan arrives at the home of the Gambels to babysit their daughter Ashley. In the basement, she finds an inhuman creature feeding off little Ashley. Terrified, she tries to escape, but Mr. Gambel purposely shuts the door on her. A strange sign is shown on the door.

In the present, Ben Shaw comes to live with his father Liam as his parents are in the middle of a divorce. Liam gives Ben a job working at the marina, where he befriends Mallory. He notices Liam kissing a co-worker named Sara. In the woods, Dillon, the son of Liam’s neighbor Abbie, finds a tree with the same symbol seen at the Gambel house. He hears what sounds like Abbie’s voice coming from the tree, calling to him before Abbie appears. They bring a buck home that they hit, and later that night, something crawls out of the buck’s corpse.

I’m not sure was it the buzz going around before the release or what, but right off the bat I can say that, among other emotions, I’m also pretty disappointed. “The Wretched” is a reasonably well made horror movie, has all the typical makings of one – including a story that’s pretty much put together of multiple familiarities, portions of “Fright Night”, “The Witch”, “Rear Window” (or “Disturbia”, if You will), plus some body horror, and a kind of 80’s feeling that seems to have stayed more of a goal than an achievement. Overall, “The Wretched” comes across as… fundamentally basic.