How to Deter a Robber‘s Empathetic Bumblers Make for Charming Horror-Comedy

The essence of Maria Bissell’s feature debut How to Deter a Robber is captured in its opening monologue, where main character Madison (Vanessa Marano) dramatically describes the death of her childhood goldfish, punctuated with the beautiful phrase “Suck my dick, Emily Dickinson.” Right off the bat, Bissell is signaling that this is going to be a comedic rollercoaster that is a little bit funny, a little bit scary, a little bit sad and full of heart.
Madison is 18, with a sweet but naïve boyfriend named Jimmy (Benjamin Papac), an unsupportive and overbearing mother (Gabrielle Carteris), and a sweet and understanding uncle (Chris Mulkey), all of whom have come together at their family cabin in northern Wisconsin for Christmas. Madison and her mother are constantly at odds, shown immediately as her mother doesn’t believe Madison read the meat thermometer correctly and thinks the turkey needs a few more minutes in the oven. They each try to grab the tray out of the other’s hands and, as can be expected, the turkey goes flying into the trash.
The ensuing family dinner reveals this is nothing new, though her uncle Andy is often on her side, protecting her from an abrasive mother and oblivious stepdad. As Madison and Jimmy storm out of dinner, they spy a light on in the neighboring cabin. Thinking the cabin is haunted, they decide to break in to hold a séance. None of this is done with much sincerity as they’re really just two bored teenagers trying to find something to do. But they aren’t the only ones who broke in next door; they discover the cabin had been robbed, but they’re getting blamed for it.
As they sit in the family cabin with Andy and wait to learn if law enforcement buys their story, they become the robbers’ next victims. Enter Christine (Abbie Cobb) and Patrick (Sonny Valicenti), two amateurs trying to make enough money to move to New Orleans by breaking into vacant cabins. But as a hostage situation unfolds, they are in over their heads and everyone knows it. While up until this point the film primarily focuses on Madison, it frequently cuts to short interludes with the approaching robbers to add an air of fear and foreboding. Yes, Madison and her family’s verbal sparring is entertaining, but Bissell doesn’t want us to forget the looming danger of the titular robbers. Comedy and Christmas carols are replaced with darker colors and a sullen electronic score when the masked pair are shown in shadow packing their guns and pawning off goods at antique stores. Tension builds and builds towards what is expected to be an explosive confrontation, but once again expectations are subverted as the two worlds collide not into a bloody mess but a tangle of confused and terrified limbs.