Director: Adam Green
Year: 2006
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Taking a riverboat trip into the Louisiana swamps, a group of tourists and their ride find a local legend about a psychotic serial killer living in the swamps true when he comes back from the dead to kill them one-by-one and must find a way of surviving his blood-soaked rampage.
Review:
On the whole this was an absolutely fun and fantastic slasher. One of the best parts to this one is that glorious throwback feeling to the slashers and of the past, and nearly every aspect of this is found throughout here. Starting with the backstory here, this is a classic sense of unwarranted trauma and abuse which is a classic example of a supposed slasher back-story that carries this one along. The use of the tragedy that befell his youth, from the deformity and his being protected before the prank the kids play on him which gives this the full-on slasher backstory that's appropriate for this type of story. There's an extra sense of sympathy created here for what becomes an utterly unsympathetic character as an adult which makes this an incredibly fine backstory for the killer.
More to the point, the film's love of old-school special effects means that everything here is done with prosthetic make-up and not through CGI, which is a real blast here giving the actions a much more impressive feel to these scenes. That also brings up the film's other great elements in a series of spectacularly brutal and graphic kills here that make for a really exciting time watching the carnage on display here as it rips people to pieces, hacks off limbs and really just displays no outward rationale for keeping people in one piece. Those kills, which are so over-the-top and graphic, are still grounded in a realistic setup that could realistically happen but are taken to an absurd degree that really works here to make this more fun.
That these come from a fine assortment of action-packed stalking scenes is quite nice here and really gets this going nicely, as it starts with the early backstory scenes and then carries on through the staking scenes of the group after being stranded in the swamp where the first attack on the couple gets this one going nicely. There's other big scenes here with the attack on the tour-guide and the eventual escape, as well as the big battle in the tool-shed and the cemetery chase which all make for great action-packed scenes that include the great gore and suspense throughout. That suspense, coming not only from the stories and tall-tales while also showcasing the absolutely creepy swamps and shack locations here which really help move this along as well as the unrelenting gore make this so good. About the only flaw here is the longer amount of time this takes to get to the swamp with the rather lame celebrations and tour-boat trip that takes forever to move along. Otherwise, this one was simply a blast.
The acting here is especially enjoyable since these are great characters worth being around. Joel David Moore as Ben is a fine lead, clearly ill-at-ease with the debauchery of New Orleans and wanting to mourn his breakup in quieter realms but is forced to go along to appease his friend Marcus. Played by Deon Richmond, he serves this one nicely as the edgy friend trying to help his friend get over women by throwing more women at him as he suggests joining the tour only for the girls going along, and their playful banter is rather funny. Tamara Feldman as Marybeth is somewhat disappointing as she seems to disappear into the background while the others take up more action against Crowley and seems to be a rather ineffectual final girl. The rest of the cast is incredibly fun and enjoyable without being too awful.
Frankly, this serves as one of the finest slashers in the genre with so much to enjoy about it that this serves as essential viewing for any slasher fan. There's not many out there who won't find this one fun, and it's worthwhile for anyone else that considers themselves into the genre as a whole.
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