Rock Solid Acting Balances Out This Flick…
I prefer to know as little as possible about a movie I’m about to watch, so as not to spoil it, or give myself any sort of expectation, good or bad. I would normally check to see it’s genre and cast, but all I knew in this instance was that it was a horror, with shades of Deliverance. After watching this impressive little low budget affair, I got a pleasant surprise when I found out who the director was. None other than Katie Aselton, who also wrote, produced, and co-starred.
The story stuck to the horror formula of the, hunted by crazies in the woods scenario, but we have three ladies instead of men, being the hunted this time. It’s nothing fancy, with three friends going into the woods, meeting three men, who turn out to have been kicked out the Army recently, and now want to kill our three heroines. The girls are played extremely well by, Aselton (Abby), Lake Bell (Lou) with Superman’s ex girlfriend Kate Bosworth (Sarah), and between them have loads of experience. It shows.
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The performances will not be winning awards but be assured, they are good and practically picked the entire movie up on it’s shoulders, and carried it over the finish line. A lame story such as this needs help, and as they didn’t have a great deal of money, the biggest investment was in the actors themselves. All of the actors were way too good for a low budget horror such as this and Aselton had a relatively easy job when it came to getting them to perform but her inexperience was telling on most of the action scenes. Unfortunately men are in far more action films than women and is certainly true in Kate’s case, but she still gave us the goods. Ex-model Aselton is developing a sure hand behind the lens, with her first directorial movie The Freebie receiving a lukewarm reception in 2010, but proving that horror just might not be her thing. Even so, I’m impressed by her tenacity and the fact she’s making a go of it when others are happy to stick to the one task. Kate can take on four and look sexy whilst doing so.
It’s not the greatest horror ever made but the story was told well, the horror was acceptable however it was the acting that was the real star of this film. That and that alone. It’s a horror that will do in a pinch if you see nothing else and will please the indie crowd.
Recommended
Score: C+
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