Director: David Del Rio
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Taking a road trip together, a couple and their friend try to forget a bad breakup by going to a scenic lake in the desert, but when the trip goes awry and they realize why as the area is patrolled by a savage cult looking for a new queen to spawn more members they try to figure out how to get away alive.
Review:
This wasn’t that bad of an effort and had a lot to like about it. One of the strongest elements here is the generally enjoyable mixture of the horror and comedy elements present which are apparent throughout the whole film. The fact that the group banter on the trip up there and up to the initial attack offers a rather enjoyable setup that brings up a fun, lighthearted atmosphere of the friends hanging out and joking while still trying to placate the boundaries of the various relationships in play. Seeing the way they interact on the drive there and trying to put their relationship issues out into the open air regarding the reason for the trip and their personal backstories gives this a rather solid build-up featuring all the comedy and motivations for getting the group into the desert.
As well, there’s also a nice sense of fun featured in the encounters with the cult. There’s quite a lot of fun encounters throughout the film of them chasing the friends throughout the dried-up lake, through the various relics from previous victims left ta the area and finally getting to the cult meetings where they reveal the purpose behind the cult being there. The final scenes of them fighting back against the cult and getting quite fun and messy with how it all plays out, featuring some surprising moments and outcomes for several of the characters here, as the revelations that come about here are quite surprising and unexpected which helps quite a bit to go alongside the fine gory outcomes. These are what manage to hold this one up over its main drawbacks.
There are a few minor issues featured within this one. The main problem is that, for every joke that lands with this one there’s a couple more that fail to do so and are outright horrible. The line between humorous and childish gets crossed repeatedly here with the monotonous sex references, constant bickering about her boyfriend, and the later inclusion of weed jokes since one of the characters becomes stoned in the film which can take a toll on the viewer at times. Moreover, there’s also the factor of how surprisingly simple it is to take out the cult, which is carried out so easily that it does render a lot of the catharsis that emerges from the act itself. These factors do manage to rag the film down enough overall.
Overview: **.5/5
Despite having a few missteps here and there, by and large, this one comes off rather nicely with enough positives to enjoy about it even with those issues coming into play at times. Give it a look if you’re intrigued by this kind of effort or enjoy films of this nature, while those who are turned off by this style or approach should heed caution.
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