Sometimes, it's good to go into a movie not knowing much about it: I'd say this was definitely one of those cases, so I'd recommend you go watch this [and I do recommend it], then come back. We'll wait for you.
Ok? We watched this simply for Shepis, since she guested at the last horror festival, so had no idea at all what to expect. What we got, starts off as a Hell's Angels pic, sharply turns 90 degrees into The Evil Dead, makes another abrupt change in the third quarter, into The Strangers territory, before ending up inhabiting WTF?-ville. And that's not a spoiler, I'm just genuinely perplexed. Still, got to love a film that covers so much ground, even if the results are equally likely to perplex as entertain. I will admit, I almost fell asleep in the first 25 minutes, as second-generation hardcore biker Cody (Knauf) heads out to a farmhouse with the rest of his gang for his mother's birthday party. "Is anything going to happen?" I wondered, as Megan (McDowell) made googly-eyes at him. Then the last stragglers leave, only for Michelle (Shepis), Cody's ex-girlfriend, to stagger back, drenched in blood. From there, things pinball their way off any beaten track, as described above. Oh, and did I mention the Lovecraftian overtones?
I think the longer this went on, the more I enjoyed it, though I can certainly see how the ending could well piss some viewers off. Despite the swinging through genres, there is a certain commonality of tone, with the directors gleefully wallowing in the carnage that unfolds from all angles. The special effects do likely over-reach themselves, with an over-abundance of CGI opticals that we could probably have done without, but the physical effects are solid, lending an air of reality to proceedings - even as events drift ever further from that. The individual elements are probably ones with which most genre fans will be familiar; the combination, however, is unlikely to be anything like you've ever seen, and that can only be applauded.
B
[December 2011]
