Never let your daughter borrow the truck
When a killer gets loose from his captors, he ends up camping out in a small rural town. A couple and their daughter arrive in town for vacation and the daughter goes in to the main part of town to meet her friend. Through a small set of circumstances, Mari (the main teen) and her friend runs into Krug (the killer) and his crew and gets thoroughly ‘messed up’ in the process. Krug kills her friend and rapes Mari. To add to the suffering, Krug and gang end up trying to kill Mari by dumping her in the river and take shelter from an oncoming storm with Mari’s parents (who are looking for their daughter). Everything comes to a head when Mari’s parents discover their broken, but alive, daughter and realize that her attackers are residing in their house. The question is, what do they do?
Revenge is a dish best served cold. This movie is a revenge film, and the revenge is completely justified. The attack that occurs in the film is beyond brutal. I’ve watched a lot of films in my life and I actually flinched and turned away from the attack scene just so I didn’t have to experience it. What this gang of characters does to the two girls is beyond terror, it’s downright sickening. I guess that’s where Craven and crew really shaped the film’s emotions. Is it necessary to show a girl bleed to death or a girl get raped? It can be implied, but to take it as far as these filmmakers did was almost unnecessary. Again, it does establish how brutal this gang of people are and it creates a disconnect when you see what the parents end up doing, but it could have been done in a less brutal way, especially to girls who clearly looked too young. This reminded me of A Time to Kill when the little girl gets attacked by the country boys; it’s absolutely brutal to watch and makes you sick to your stomach. Don’t get me wrong, I like seeing characters developed, but the beginning of the movie could have been enough. The rape and the bleeding of the two girls could have been implied or edited in a different way to establish how far these people would go. There are ten different ways Krug and his gang could have been established and developed; this just seems to be stepping far over the line.
With that said, when the parents get ahold of the gang in the movie you’re completely ready to see things go down. This is the positive side of showing the horror of the gang; you want to desperately see them get theirs. Oh and they get theirs. The turn in the story where the parents strike back is nothing short of triumphant. These two suburban characters turn killers when they make the connection between their daughter and the gang. It’s one of the best parts of the movie and possibly one of the more gruesome. While you will cheer the parents on and you’ll want them to do their worst to these bastards, you’re probably going to find the last death a little bit too far. I won’t ruin it for you, of course.
Dennis Iliadis impressively got the most out of his actors and put them into situations that may not have been the most comfortable. I praise the man for pushing his actors, as they certainly will sell you on the characters. He directs a well-crafted film into a dark depth than most films go these days. This isn’t just a teen slasher film that doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, this is just a troubled gang that wants to kill. He makes the movie uncomfortable and tells you up front that you won’t see anything coming and all bets are off. He doesn’t pull any punches and doesn’t make many excuses; Iliadis purely puts the viewer through a different type of hell and doesn’t fully bring them back at the end. I’m impressed, regardless of what I think of the story and scenes going too far.
Iliadis shows that with blessing of Wes Craven (which apparently he got) he created a different kind of movie from the original. The original is 37 years old (wow!) and doesn’t resemble much of what you see in this version (other than the original concept and shell). In a way, this is a redo for Craven and a better version of what he created. Again, it’s certainly more brutal, but also it’s technically better than what the 1972 film could have hoped for.
In the end, I found this movie positively terrifying. The unrated version of the film is intense, gross, hard to take and effective in what it’s trying to accomplish. It’s not a movie for everyone and even the most hardcore horror/terror fans might turn away from this film slightly. That’s probably the only problem is that it’s just damn brutal. Other than that, it’s a movie you want to watch with friends and one that you should break out on a stormy day.
One time where blu-ray was too real
There are few movies that will make you uncomfortable, but this is certainly one of them. The addition of HD to the mix makes the experience even more intense. Depending on how you feel about the film this is either a plus or a minus. For me, I like being immersed in a film and this content mixed with blu-ray takes you to an entirely new level of terror. Add that to a creepy soundtrack, intense sound effects and you have a perfect mixture for being terrified out of your wits.
Now with all of this said, you don’t get many features with this regretfully. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– Deleted Scenes
– A Look Inside Featurette
– BD-Live
Not much going on here, but I doubt you’ll be looking for any more insight to this film; there’s a great chance that you’ll have enough.