There has not been a horror movie that made me feel this kind of despair. Even horror movies with unhappy endings almost have some kind of silver lining, a way to make you say well that sucked but this was good. This movie never does that. It denies you happiness or closure on every level similar to The Great Silence. There is no catharsis of revenge, no real punishment for the villains and only you know the heroes side of the story. This is an interesting story about youth gone wild with working class parents who will do anything to protect and believe their precious children without knowing what they are actually doing in their friend groups. It would make a good double feature with something like Class of 1984 as both deal with similar themes through different cultural means.
The film starts with couple Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) driving to an area with a lake that Steve had been to before. Once there they find the area has bought up by a development company. Teenage youths start to come to the beach and annoy them by blasting music and not keeping their barking dog away from them. That night the teens put insects in their food supply and put a broken glass bottle behind one of their tires so the tire will pop whne they drive away. Going back into town for food they think they see the bikes off the youths near a house and Steve breaks in and leaves when the patriarch comes home. Later at the lake the youths show up and take Steve's wallet and keys and nearly run them over with their own Jeep. While walking through the woods they come across the youths and Steve gets into a fight with one of them holding a knife. The leader Brett's (Jack O'Connell) dog, Bonnie. After Brett tosses the keys at them he orders his goons to get them and Steve gets into a car crash where he is pinned with a branch.
There are many things that made me angry early in this film. One thing for sure I'm glad we have the 2nd amendment here in America because if I went camping in a random area because I would bring a gun anywhere I went and no one is stealing my car. The decision to go camping in the first place is fine but once you see the keep out signs and teens start harassing you I would have just left. Steve makes several questionable decisions early on and seems to aggravate the teens even further. Why break into the house when you can just wait for someone to be home? The thing about this situation is the teens doing stupid teen things we always do and that we have done to us by teens. The thing is all of that is fun and games until someone or something in this case actually gets hurt. That is when things cannot be undone. Steve makes bad decisions but I also don't think he realizes that he is in over his head. One or two teens versus a couple of teens is nothing but there are 6 or 7 boys involved in this gang. Early on and throughout the film David Julyan's score functions as a nice soundscape going well with the location and some of the romance scenes while providing more tension to the suspense.
Spoiler Section
The day after Steve crashes the car Jenny wakes up to find the kids have tied Steve to a stump and all of the gang members take turns stabbing him on orders from Brett. Paige (Finn Atkins) the lone woman of the group films the whole thing on her phone. Shades of riots in the 2000s particularly in Britain. When Jenny is discovered because of Bluetooth on Steve's phone she runs away and Steve escapes. They track Jenny to an abandoned construction site and she later finds Steve and rescues him. They have a nice moment in abandoned shack where Steve gives her the wedding ring and purposes. She has to leave Steve to escape and he eventually dies from his injuries. Jenny eventually runs into Adam, a nicer boy who was being bullied on the beach. Instead of calling his Mom for help he actually calls the gang as he wants to be a member.
Jenny is tied up to be burned alive but escapes when her ropes are burned. Brett burns Adam as a response. Later he kills another gang member, Harry by beating him to death. Jenny is eventually found by a man going to pick up his brother but when his brother is revealed he is also a gang member. Jenny steals the van and crashes near a house having a party. We see Brett's father from earlier at the house and two dog bowls for "Bonnie," and "Clyde." They talk about how Bonnie is missing and we of course now know what is going on. Jenny begs them to call an ambulance and she goes to the bathroom and locks the door. There is arguing outside and Jon, Brett's father breaks down the door. Jenny had killed a nicer gang member, Cooper, by accident while trying to escape earlier and ran Paige over with the van. Brett has convinced everyone that Jenny and Steve tried to kill everyone. Jon and some other men are last seen taking Jenny into the bathroom and Brett locks his door to block out her screams. He tries on Steve's sunglasses as the movie ends.
As I was saying earlier this movie gives no catharsis of revenge. The two main characters are so busy just trying to survive they can't just pick and choose who they kill. As a result the meaner and more deserving gang members are let off the hook and the ones that are really only following Brett are the ones who are killed. The only silver linings here are that Brett has live with what he has done. I'm not entirely sure if at the end he has any remorse though. The parents now have to live without some of their kids, but they don't believe their kids were doing anything wrong. It's funny that all of them are afraid to stand up to Brett yet by the end of the film he is the one who comes across as scared because he can't take any responsibility for what he has done.
There is some good filmmaking here. The effects by Paul Hyett, who just like the editor Jon Harris, and the composer worked on The Descent does a great job coming up with some nasty effects. The effects on some of Steve's wounds are gnarly and real looking. I like that Kelly Reilly gets rougher looking and her white dress is all black by the end. They even did a good job showing the adult's resilience versus the strength in numbers of the kids. At the construction site Jenny hides on the roof of the shack and they don't think for one second she could be up there. That also leads to a great suspense scene where someone searches behind it and she isn't there. The same thing when they go underwater while being in the shack. The moment with her taking the spike out of her foot was gnarly too. I like that the end is an antithesis to the Last House on the Left. That being said with the way this movie made me feel which was angry and deprived of any payoff I can't foresee a rewatch any time soon. Since I'm searching for some silver lining or something to take solace in though that tells me the movie did its job.
Rating: 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment