Director: Luciana Faulhaber
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Taking a road-trip together, a group of friends head out to a relaxing getaway at a remote house in the countryside for a relaxing getaway only to come across a series of locals that hinder their plans, and when a vicious killer shows up and knocks them off one-by-one they try to find a way of stopping the madman.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty decent enough slasher effort. What works great here is the isolation and sense of solitude found here as the group slowly becomes aware of what’s going on. The fact that their clearly ill-at-ease out in the country, reacting unfavorably but still graciously to the conditions out in the wilderness and to their neighbors who drop by to hang-out with them that sets a great tone for later on when it starts to focus on the psycho family out in the woods. The initial scene of them arriving in the farmhouse while the couple is attempting kinky foreplay and the mistaking of their comforting of her tied up as her partner generates some solid chills and suspense, and the aftermath of it all starts this one rather nicely. An ambush in the woods where a necking couple is attacked with a chainsaw gives this some fine bloodletting and gore which sets up the chilling stalking in the finale where they get chased through the woods and are forced into rather unconventional tactics to prevent being killed off by the masked madman. Filled with some solid gore and a nasty edge to the kills, these here are what make the film work in a solid, old-school slasher style.
This one does have a few minor problems to be had here. The biggest issue here is the pacing featured here, which is strangely odd in a film with such a brief running time to be at a place where the general tempo here is so scattered. This one shouldn’t take until nearly the halfway point to get started with the stalking scenes and being obvious that something’s going wrong as the get-together between everyone at the various stops before they arrive or the extended dinner-party that barely has anything going on would be a part of a film like this. That it doesn’t bother much in the way of any other kind of traditional build-up since the majority of the time is spent on the creepy dinner they all attend together that just don’t have much of any interest in building up the plot. That carries over into the finale where the utterly unnecessary sequence of carrying on the girls getting stuck at the bus through all sorts of implausible manners that are rather inconsequential and just keep them there for no reason. As well, the film’s other issue is a startlingly underwhelming resolution that feels weak and doesn’t have any real emotional impact with no build-up at all since this is quite underwhelming overall. On the whole, these aren’t too bad but do manage to hold this one down just enough.
Overview: **.5/5
A wholly enjoyable throwback slasher effort that keeps it simple and brutal for the most part, there’s not much else to this one beyond those factors which makes it fun if too simple-minded for some. For those that enjoy the straight-laced simple-minded slasher aesthetic or looking for something simple like that this one is worth a watch while those that want something more substantial or aren’t fans of that simplistic style should look elsewhere.
This review ran as part of our month-long Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out all of our interviews and reviews we've conducted for the event:
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