Director: Darren Berry
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Gathering together at a remote cottage, a group of classmates decides to party off the previous nights’ festivities with a round of paintball in the local woods, but as the game continues they come to believe the person killing them off one-by-one might be one of them and must try to get out of the situation alive.
Review:
There was a lot to like with this one. Among its better features is the generally enjoyable setup that allows this to operate as a rather fun slasher. The setup involving the group returning to the location in order to carry out their reunion and going through the usual series of scenes featured in these types of films gives this a lot to like in the first half. From the job catch-ups and the rekindling romances as well as professional jealousy gives this a nice beginning, and when mixed with the first few paintball games that are played which show the various discrepancies between the teams who are taking it as a joke compared to the other team who are more prepared and serious about it sets a fun starting point.
The action in here really starts with the realization that the killer is among them and hunting everyone in the group. The discovery of the massacred paintballers in their stronghold offers a fantastic reveal and generates a lot to like with the suddenness of everything getting turned from a fun game into the more deadly situation present, while the later scenes showing the group coming upon the various traps set for them that denote a killer is on the loose offers a nice sense of urgency even if the characters don't agree. The resulting attacks throughout the rest of the woods offer up the kind of fun series of encounters while generating a nice amount of action and gore with plenty of twists and turns to keep the killers' identity a secret, making for a lot to like overall here.
This one does have a few issues to it. The main flaw is the overwhelming stupidity and negligence that emerges once the killer first starts striking the group and picking them off. The sheer incredulity to question what's going on and not make out that they're in danger is mind-boggling, as they resort to petty insults and questioning what's going on far longer than they really should in the face of such obvious death and dismemberment around them. It's a rather curious decision to feature that as the group had been fun until then, but it takes the characters into such a different dimension of likability that it's hard to sympathize with and see where they would question the reality of their situation.
The other issue here is the surprisingly restrained attitude toward the blood and gore involved. While it makes sense in context why the kills toward the rival paintball team happened off-screen setting up what’s going to occur to the other group, having them off-screen is the start of something rather detrimental where the rest of the film features a large number of occurrences happening in that manner. Despite being rather gory, it's all aftermath shots of characters stumbling upon the results which denote something horrific happened to the individual but the actual inciting incident and the confrontation with the killer are missed, resulting in characters stumbling upon their dead friends or seeing them captured and killed without any context. The finale will also be an issue, with these elements all holding it down.
Overview: ***/5
A generally enjoyable and somewhat fun slasher effort, there’s a lot to like here while still coming under fire some of the flaws here which are somewhat problematic in the sense of how to treat slasher films as a whole. This is quite easily recommended for hardcore slasher fans or those who don’t mind what the negatives for this one involve, while others who do mind or turned off by the style should heed caution.
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