The Vault

A decent premise in search of a much better movie, The Vault follows a crew of bank robbers as a simple job goes horribly awry after a supernatural force makes its presence known. It’s clear almost immediately that the most obvious problem here is an almost complete lack of compelling characters, as it becomes more and more difficult to work up any interest in or sympathy for the various protagonists’ ongoing exploits – with this proving especially disastrous as the narrative progresses into its high-stakes (yet entirely lifeless) second half. Filmmaker Dan Bush’s efforts at cultivating a suspenseful, mysterious atmosphere generally fall hopelessly flat, and there’s little doubt, as well, that the director’s less-than-coherent visual sensibilities diminishes the impact of several key sequences (including the aforementioned supernatural force’s initial appearance). The Vault is, as a result, saddled with a mostly uninvolving feel that can’t be rescued by a small handful of positive attributes (eg a relatively solid final few minutes), which is too bad, certainly, given the potential afforded by the picture’s seemingly foolproof setup.

* out of ****