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It was ok, but could have been so much better. SPOILERS

posted 9 years ago by Xavier-1992
6 replies | jump to latest

I thought the trailer for this was interesting, but unfortunately it never lives up to it's potential. I expected a slasher surrounding a group of cub scouts in the middle of the woods to be more ballsy than this, and even when sh*t does go down the deaths aren't really nothing special or that gory. I liked the first kill with the arrow shooting the wasp/bee hive into the guys chest, but that death isn't nearly as graphic as it should have been, but the execution was well done.

Also, I don't mind a good build-up, but it took way too long for anything to happen in this movie. I didn't find any of the characters that likeable, especially the douche bag with the ponytail. I honestly could care less for the kids aswell or that *beep* dog. The feral kid was just creepy and made weird sounds, but never did much of anything except steal stuff. As for the main killer it's pretty crazy that you don't see him until almost the second half of the movie. I didn't understand the relationship he had with the feral kid considering it seemed to be going in a different direction, but maybe it's because it was massively underdeveloped.

Anyways, I found this movie disappointing to say the least.

5/10

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 9 years ago

I find it funny that you are gauging it on the fact there wasn't enough blood.
You know not all movies have to have 'Saw' type gore. Think of movies like
Halloween, where there is basically no blood at all, and it is considered
by most, one of the best horror movies out there.

This movie, to me, was more like an Italian Giallo film...

[–] Xavier-1992 9 years ago

I never said gore would have made it a better movie, but it is a slasher and what's wrong with wanting a little blood here and there ? My main problems with the movie besides the fact that there are really no likeable characters is that it plays things way too safe given it's premise. It just never lived up to what it could've been IMO. Having some balls wouldn't have hurt this movie.

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 9 years ago

IMO this was not a slasher at all, as far as I know, it wasn't presented as one either.
And as far as having likable characters, it isn't necessary in a giallo style film.
The movie was much more surreal, with things that weren't exactly realistic.
The only person that was halfway redeemable was the woman, where in a slasher she
would have gotten away. Fortunately they went for the unexpected ending.

[–] AceRoccola 8 years ago

What kind of horror films are you watching where a girl dying at the end in a contrived twist is unexpected? That's extremely expected. It's exactly what I expect from most horror films, and it's what I expected from this film given the hints they make throughout - though I did hope for better.

You call this a giallo style film, and yet so many giallos also feature savagely bleak endings (at least for the sympathetic female characters). See: Torso, A Blade in the Dark, etc. There is nothing unexpected there. The downbeat ending is the norm in horror nowadays too. You mentioned SAW earlier for its excessive gore, but it also popularized the downbeat ending in modern horror films after its commercial success. And you clearly don't know slasher films if you think that the girl always gets away. Black Christmas, House on Sorority Row, Madman, and plenty of others both old and new end in very downbeat ways. It's precisely the fact that you don't know, that you can't predict a "good" ending, that creates suspense in the genre. When the needle falls too obviously in one direction, and the film telegraphs the ending, then it's going to be unsatisfying no matter what it is - good or bad.

If anything, an ending in which Sam/Kai turned on his big invincible murder dad would have been more out of the ordinary. It would have inverted the whole "outcast with a troubled past" thing they were playing to a hilt with Kai like this was a weekly murder serial on NBC. Instead of them doing something actually unexpected, we just find out that this was a prequel to another dumb movie that we'll probably never see where Sam and Murder Dad frolic through the woods because people are mean. But whether it's an attempt to start a dumb franchise, or just leave an impression on the audience, the ending just struck me as lazy and cheap. They went for the most contrived sort of "shock", and the last several scenes of the film don't really work because they all have to lead up to this lazily plotted moment.

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 8 years ago

Do you better now after your diarrhea of thoughts?
Obviously you didn't read my post. the giallo was due to the surreal nature
of the film, and nothing else.

[–] dogsoldier_spoon-1 9 years ago

I agree. A bunch of things never really made sense in the movie (like the tree trap) and there was hardly a backstory on the killers. Just "oh they just live in the woods and kill people for fun" would even be okay, if they hinted at it. All we got now is that people were fired from a closed down factory. So what, you go live in the woods and kill people then? All the characters were unlikeable, they didn't have the guts to show the other kids getting killed (did they even die, we never know that) and the acting's really not that good by some of the actors. I was expecting much more considering the idea behind it. And as someone who's in the scouts himself, a lot of things make no sense whatsoever.

It was ok, but could have been so much better. *SPOILERS*

It was ok, but could have been so much better. SPOILERS