In 7 words or less: Kevin Smith vs GodBest bits? John Goodman's jaded veteran special agent, tasked with bringing down the nut house and also Michael Parks who plays the creepy leader of the fundamentalists with great aplomb both steal the show.
Did it make you think thoughts? So, the guy who did Mallrats and Clerks has a stab (ha ha) at the horror genre. The premise starts off in a pretty standard way. A gaggle (how many is a gaggle? In this instance I am taking it as being 3) of young local punks attempt to get their ends away with a woman of mature age who happens to live in an isolated location out in the sticks. Uh Oh, classic horror warning alert. Why do these kids never learn? You don't go off alone to some creepy venue without bad ju-ju occurring. The kids are then captured by some religious zealots and the 'real' horror kicks in. I say 'real' horror, as in terms of jumps/scares/ghouls/gore etc there isn't any really. The terror sets in as you realise just how nutty this cultish band of hootenannies really is. The problem is, this is nothing new. So they hate 'gays'. So what? I've seen this before in countless documentaries and the film plays out like an episode of Louis Theroux. Then out of nowhere we get a prolonged gunfight/battle scene. Where did that come from? On reflection, the film is essentially a socio-political commentary and makes a good attempt to show us how messed up the world really is and that in the end everyone pays some kind of price, even the innocent. The problem is that although the script is tight, and the performances good, there's just not enough substance and the film suffers for not really having much of a plot.
Would you watch it again? Probably not
Rating (out of 100%): Not a bad film, just a misguided one. If Kev had ramped up the scares and got rid of the mass shootout (maybe just had one guy invade the loonies ranch) it would have been much stronger.
Did it make you think thoughts? So, the guy who did Mallrats and Clerks has a stab (ha ha) at the horror genre. The premise starts off in a pretty standard way. A gaggle (how many is a gaggle? In this instance I am taking it as being 3) of young local punks attempt to get their ends away with a woman of mature age who happens to live in an isolated location out in the sticks. Uh Oh, classic horror warning alert. Why do these kids never learn? You don't go off alone to some creepy venue without bad ju-ju occurring. The kids are then captured by some religious zealots and the 'real' horror kicks in. I say 'real' horror, as in terms of jumps/scares/ghouls/gore etc there isn't any really. The terror sets in as you realise just how nutty this cultish band of hootenannies really is. The problem is, this is nothing new. So they hate 'gays'. So what? I've seen this before in countless documentaries and the film plays out like an episode of Louis Theroux. Then out of nowhere we get a prolonged gunfight/battle scene. Where did that come from? On reflection, the film is essentially a socio-political commentary and makes a good attempt to show us how messed up the world really is and that in the end everyone pays some kind of price, even the innocent. The problem is that although the script is tight, and the performances good, there's just not enough substance and the film suffers for not really having much of a plot.
Would you watch it again? Probably not
Rating (out of 100%): Not a bad film, just a misguided one. If Kev had ramped up the scares and got rid of the mass shootout (maybe just had one guy invade the loonies ranch) it would have been much stronger.
Real World Horror 70%
Movie Rating 60%
