Lest one ever think Hollywood has a monopoly on horror flicks about teens being irresponsible and disrespectful and suffering the consequences of their actions, here comes Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Trukanas. Co-writing with Titas Laucius, his 2022 film 'Rupintojelis' ('Pensive,' also known as 'We might hurt each other') gives us a few dozen characters (some spotlighted more than others, naturally) who fulfill various archetypes, whose personalities will come to clash, and who will reveal their true selves on the night of a big party following high school graduation. They also all illustrate the stereotypical behavior of teens in film and TV, which is to say a lot of alcohol, drugs, partying, and promiscuity - gosh, either I was the most obliviously milquetoast person growing up, or the entirety of my hometown was, or fiction has been feeding us false perceptions for all these years about how teens behave. The filming locations are gorgeous, the art direction is sharp, Rokas Sydeikis' cinematography is crisp and vivid, the cast give excellent performances commensurate with the horror-thriller vibes, and the abundant stunts and effects are outstanding. Above all, it's actually the original music of Andrius Kauklys that's most striking to me here as it leans predominantly (but not exclusively) on EDM to complement the violence. Everyone involved turned in fine work, and it looks and sounds great!

The good news is that in addition to looking and sounding great, Trukanas and Laucius give us an unexpected additional angle to the story that's not just dark but outright bleak (and therefore welcome for we genre fans), an underhanded reflection of just how rotten people can be when the chips are down. The bad news is that though we see bits and pieces of this angle throughout the length - a trail of breadcrumbs, if you will - it only specifically comes to bear at the very end. And while the screenplay gives us a lot to like in the preceding length, and some swell ideas, the truth of the matter is that they're rather unremarkable. 'Rupintojelis' is a slasher. It's a slasher that might toss some red herrings our way, which gives us some characters that are especially likable (I'm most fond of Saule and Zygis), and which has some especially smart notions at points (of which it may or may not fully take advantage), but it's still a slasher. Or if you don't like that term, we can just say that broadly speaking the movie is ultimately pretty straightforward. This is not to disparage Trukanas, Laucius, or anyone else's contribution, nor the picture at large. It's enjoyable; there's no rule that says every title must be a revelation; I look forward to seeing what all involved do in the future (this seems to be Trukanas' first full-length feature). It's just that in the grand scheme of things it's not super special, and it maybe doesn't make ideal use of its best ideas.

If one feels some particular impetus to watch then that's terrific, but by and large this isn't breaking any new ground. You don't need to go out of your way for it, yet 'Rupintojelis' is worth checking out if you have the chance.

• I liked the cinematography, I really enjoyed the sound too.

• I loved that comedic character. You know who I'm talking about.

• It takes quite some time to establish itself. 45 minutes for an 87-minute slasher seems like too much time to me.

• It doesn't explore its biggest mystery enough (the figures).

• It doesn't delve deep enough into most of its characters and gives a terrible conclusion to the central romance (the boat scene is ridiculous).

• Most of the deaths are good, with some creative imagination.

• Still, I'm trying to figure out why 20/30 teenagers wouldn't come together to take down a man with a knife.

• The main character's arc is unexpected and, in a way, interesting.

• It's not a terrible slasher to start with, but it's very similar to everything that has already been done, with the potential for much more if it had explored the local folklore behind the plot.

Known in its native Lithuania as Rupintojelis (Caregiver), this is at once a teen drama, a folk horror and a slasher and when it leans into the latter, it goes all the way. Once known as Pensive, the new title is a much better explanation of what happens in this shocker.

After their graduation party location gets canceled, a group of teens are saved by Marius (Sarunas Rapolas Meliesius), who has been one of the more misunderstood and unpopular students. His mother has an empty property that she's been trying to sell forever and he knows where she keeps the keys. It seems like the perfect strategy to get his crush, Brigita (Gabija Bargailaite), all alone.

Sounds like a teen sex comedy, maybe? Well, when the students arrive, there are statues all over the property, wooden figures that one of them claims are representations of grief and loss, as the last person to live here lost his family in a fire, which led to his suicide. When they go inside, the walls are covered with black soot. Yes, people died here.

Let's party?

Once the drink starts to flow, someone gets the idea to destroy the statues. But those pieces of wooden remembrance have a caretaker willing to give out the same treatment to flesh that has been visited upon wood.

The difference with nearly every other slasher that you've ever seen is that these aren't disposable teens. Some of them are quite nice. But just because they're at the house and were around when the statues were defaced, they must all pay.

If this were the 80s, Hollywood would hire director Jonas Trukanas (who co-wrote the script with Titas Laucius) and have him direct the next sequel in a horror franchise. As it is, the wood-masked charred caretaker named Algis (Marius Repsys) just might be a better Cropsy than the one that shows up in The Burning. It also takes most of the things that you expect from a traditional slasher, references them and then throws them into a blender where they come up bloody and unrecognizable yet perfect in their new execution.

This is a movie to get excited about.