Director: Don Dohler
Year: 1991
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Home Invasion
Plot:
After committing a series of crimes, a group of deranged criminals hiding out from the police take over a remote house in the countryside from a family living inside, but as they spend time in their presence realize that there’s something off about the family and must try to get away from them alive.
Review:
For the most part, this one was quite a charming low-budget effort. One of the better features here is the films’ rather enjoyable setup that serves as a solid twist to the home invasion genre. With the early part of the film featuring the concurrent build-ups of the gang going on their rampage either through the encounter at the bar or the video-store hold-up as well as getting to see the family’s life on the farm, there’s a fun sense of who the characters are and the quirkiness to each group that’s highly enjoyable. Once the criminals are forced on the run and encountering the daughter which brings them all together at the fateful farmhouse, everything comes together in fine form with the way they overtake the house and start to impose their way on the family all works nicely to the films’ benefit.
When this one turns around and flips everything around into the psycho family letting their secret loose on the criminals, there’s a demented sense of fun to the way everything turns on its head. The full reveal of everything about them, from the way they all act and behave to the rather brutal sense of encounters shown here where the psychotic family is shown to attack and kill off the intruding psychopaths one-by-one in a frenzied final half that’s non-stop carnage, this twist provides a lot to like. While it’s painfully obvious that there’s something off from the start about them, that doesn’t stop the chases and means through which they all battle each other to a wild and unexpected finish that provides the goods in terms of shocking reveals and low-budget gore.
However, there are still some issues to be had here. The main factor is the films' inherent cheapness which is painfully obvious from the very beginning with the general look of the film giving away its low-budget origins. Granted, some of that is through no fault of the film itself considering the production process it went through but that's still an issue to overcome for some considering the amount of crazy kills on display, the single-location setup, and the production that makes it incredibly difficult to make out night-time shots because of the darkness obscuring everything. The other factor here is that the over-the-top finale, with several strange twists and unexpected reveals that don’t connect to what’s going on in the rest of the film, which all hold this one down.
Overview: ***/5
A generally fun low-budget home invasion effort that doesn't have much really wrong with it beyond some storyline issues, this one has a lot to like that keeps this one up for the most part. Viewers who appreciate this kind of low-budget shot-on-video genre effort or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to enjoy here while most others out there should heed caution especially those that aren't interested in the positives.
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