Everything I had seen
leading up to the release of the film, whether previews, reviews or
those articles that often come in-between, all said that it was a
hard film to talk about without spoiling the whole thing. As far as
this review goes, I will try to keep it 100% spoiler free, but if
small ones slip through, I do apologise in advance.
I went into the film
blissfully unaware of the set-up of the film beyond the idea that a
group of young people go and stay in a cabin in the woods, but that
their might be some dark shenanigans at some point. The film didn’t
disappoint me, and included many things that surprised me. It managed
to incorporate some scifi, occult, and horror themes into an
interesting tale that also paid tribute to more than a few films in
the same genres. Once it got going, it didn’t really stop. When the
shit hit the fan, something of consequence or some piece of dialogue
that explains something key seemed to happen every couple of minutes.
While there were some obvious moments of idiocy on the part of the
college kids, because it was paying homage to the other films of its
kind, it didn’t really matter, and added to the enjoyment, knowing
how stupid they were being. At one point, a fellow cinema goer
sitting behind me called out “Don’t go near the window you twat!”
and then the inevitable happened. There were some clever
misdirections as well, things that you expected to go badly and
nothing happened, so it wasn’t all clichés.
The film contained more
humour than I expected, and it was pretty dark and sardonic, which I
liked immensely. It especially gelled with the scenes that were
taking place and was an effective counterpoint to their increasingly
bloody action.
The one negative I took
away from the film was something that I experienced in the first 15
minutes or so. The film hadn’t really got going, but once the road
trip was truly under way, the thought crossed my mind that I really
didn’t care if any of the characters lived or died. By the end of
the film, I still didn’t care, but I enjoyed the film very much,
which is strange. It wasn’t that the characters were unlikeable,
just unremarkable, but then in the way it was paying tribute to other
films, that may have been by design, which you will see for yourself
if you watch it.
I would give it 4.5 out
of 5, one of the best dark films I have seen for a good few years.
