4 troubled teen on probation are taken on a team building weekend to a remote village, where it's clear the locals aren't used to outsiders.
A relatively minor incident with a few local youths soon escalates into a nightmare.
Hard to know what to say about this one, after opening with a total non-sequitur, which seeming exists only to get Emily Booth's name in the credits while only paying her for half a day's filming, the movie swiftly introduces the group, and gets things in motion.
Aside from being conned into thinking Booth was in the movie, the first thing that hit me was the language. Everyone who knows me knows I'm not adverse to swearing like a fucking trooper (many people probably think I swear too much - fuck 'em!) but even I found the amount of "fucks" in this movie distracting! It's enough to make Quentin Tarantino blush!
The movie itself is 1 part Hills Have Eyes, 1 part Texas Chainsaw 2, 1 part Wicker man, 1 part Emmerdale 4 parts Monty Python and 6 parts League Of Gentlemen.
The whole thing is also so chock full of wall-to-wall taking the piss out of yorkshire, that I'm not sure how well it will play outside of the county (and I'm sure it plays terribly abroad); With its constant "si thee"s, ferret-in-the-trousers jokes, and northern cast, it felt like Yorkshire folk self-mocking, but south of Sheffield it probably seem, just a bit too merciless (or worse - believeable; a large portion of the place known as "down south", aka "darn sarf" do seem to think it's still pretty much the dark ages up here).
I'm really not sure what to make of it. The entire center portion of the movie revolves around a 'show' that the landlord of the local pub ("the dirty hole" - sigh) has put on to entertain the locals; Its here that the League and Python inspiration comes through loud and blatant, so much so that its hard to determine when "homage" becomes "theft"; however, although darker and sicker than both, it is as funny as neither.
That said, many of the suspense scenes are genuinely terrifying, the acting was mostly solid (apart from the caricature acting of some of the more extreme characters), the cinematography is superb, with some shots being so well framed and put together that they feel like they deserve to be in a much better movie, and there's gore-a-plenty, most of which is very well done; even at the movies worst moments I was never bored.
I'm going to cover my bases here... It's childish, puerile crap; but I did enjoy it; so I'm going to "recommend" it, but with a "So bad it's good" caveat.
(oh, and it looks more like the Home Counties than it does Yorkshire)
I have a feeling Darren would love this! Have read him out some of your review which made me LOL several times.
ReplyDeleteQuality.