Director: Jason Arbor
Year: 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Trying to boost its flagging ratings, a true-crime podcaster enlists her crew to look into a case where several people have disappeared in the local woods and goes off to look into the case, but when they arrive find the culprit to be a strange woman and her hulking masked son killing everyone they come across.
Review:
This was a massively entertaining effort with a lot to really enjoy about it. One of the finest aspects here is the stronger-than-expected storyline that takes a few cues from the iconic nursery rhyme but goes off into an intriguing spin on its own. The idea of the podcast show looking for their own boost to their numbers and finding a story ripped from the headlines that they can investigate is a solid enough idea that lights a fire on them to do it with the ultimatum to fix everything. This causes the group to stumble into the clutches of the psychotic family as the mysterious woman and equally psychotic lamb-masked hulking son arrive to be offsetting before the turn that reveals them to be the cause of the disappearances gives everything a solid start to things.
That comes to the forefront with this one providing a series of gruesome and graphic ambush scenes with the terrifying killer being used quite effectively. The opening where he ruthlessly chops a victim to pieces like a dinner carving in front of a screaming victim strapped to a chair at the table is a fantastic touch to get an idea of the brutality in store, much like the shock ambush in the house where he takes out one of the team members. Later scenes where it takes out the amorous couple in the house, delivers a great ambush at the disabled car parked in the woods, or chases another victim through the woods bring about some incredibly fun scenes that set the stage for a wild finale featuring a dark diner party filled with brutal deaths and some shocking revelations about everything that’s taking place.
The reveal about the finale is rather well-handled here and has a lot to like. Being a fun spin on the titular rhyme involving how their deranged relationship makes it possible for the twisted family dynamic to work quite well to explain the lack of attention they have and the way they operate together which is all pretty much given beforehand before getting spelled out in grand detail in the finale. Granted, this is entirely way too cheesy to be taken seriously, especially with the low budget on display this one has, and it causes this section to be quite silly and goofy. That so much of this one section is used from other films being repeated again speaks slightly to the repeated nature of this concept being used in the genre so to bring this up again is a bit to hold this down.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely enjoyable and effective slasher effort, there’s far more going on here than expected which gives this one more than enough to hold out over its few negatives. Those who appreciate this kind of genre fare, are curious about it, or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while those that are turned off by this one should heed caution with this one.
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