Alucinaciones

I am not surprised by the polarized opinions regarding this movie, although I do think there is a lot of overreaction.

Shrooms is simply a decent little movie that seems promising when you first begin to watch it, thanks in great part to solid direction tricks. However, eventually it fails to deliver because of a very, very weak story and a failed attempt at defying genres.

When you first start to watch, the movie grabs your attention with what seems like good characters and the remote set is also well showcased. You get some threads of character development and the story flows quickly to introduce the mood thanks to a character recounting a legend and one character consuming mushrooms.

Unfortunately, it's at this point that the movie starts going in all directions. Many reviewers seem offended that the movie didn't deliver a given experience which seems to be due to their expectations that this movie would follow a specific formula. Be it a "classic horror tale" or a slasher flick or gore movie. While movie fans would be wise not to make so many assumptions, one must admit there was a failure here by director Breathnach to develop a coherent mood and story.

For instance, the character development in this movie leads absolutely nowhere. In fact, many movies which do *not* rely on effective character development other than as a side-dish actually fare better than Shrooms. Yet we can't help but think it was sorely needed here. As well, the movie flirts between psychological horror, action horror and supernatural horror without ever hitting the marks. One can blend ANY genres if it is done effectively. But a mediocre story is much better off sticking to a proved formula.

One other fault of this movie is its derivative nature, borrowing tricks from a great many flicks such as Deliverance, Blair Witch and too many slasher flicks to name.

Finally, I have no idea if the director attempted a "plot twist" or not but I could see the plot twist almost as the seed was planted. I kept hoping there would be more to it, that it would be misdirection of some kind or that it would be made more explicit but no. The ending offers flashbacks explaining what happened, as if the audience wouldn't be aware of that! So what about the good? Well, the direction is really tight and some scenes, particularly early on, are effective at offering tensed moments. Lindsey Haun is also convincing as Tara. The rest of the cast is really forgettable. None of them are noticeably weak with the exception of Robert Hoffman, who really looked like he didn't belong.

I am left wondering if the editing is at fault here. Was a decision made to cut 30, 45 minutes of this movie that might have made it a great film? I certainly think this is possible. Almost none of the scenes felt boring. It just felt like an incomplete experience. Existential horror turned into classic slasher/survival movie midway into production.

Director Paddy Breathnach, who is more familiar with edgy comedies, is a welcome breath of fresh air compared to the very boring, repetitive directors who focus on the horror genre. But the screenplay by Pearse Elliott is at fault here.

Shrooms boiled down to its basic level, is your standard slasher movie.

A group of young people head off into a forest in Ireland, to sample the magic mushrooms to get high. While there, they learn of a ghost story involving a local school for boys, run by monks, where young boys suffered horrible fates at the hands of the black-robed monks. Soon, the teens are being stalked in the wood by a black-robed figure...

The twist here is that because they have taken magic mushrooms, and are on a high from them, they can't quite be sure if it's all real or not....

It's that twist in the proceedings, that makes the difference here. Without it this would just be your basic, standard slasher movie. However, like most other slashers sadly it's not really scary. It does have a couple of jump shocks as things loom into view and such, but there's not really a scary atmosphere to the movie.

The cast do okay, although the characters are a bit clichéd. The script does it's job, but the director, Paddy Breathnach does well with the material.

However..... what saves the movie is the ending, which I liked. Not the most original it has to be said, but a good one.

It's nice to see a horror movie from Ireland for a change, even if most of the cast are American, although I wish they had made a better one. It's not the worst of the horror movies this year, but sadly it's not one of the better ones.

i'd personally give this film 5.7/10.

This film is not a fantastic film, I'm sure by viewing most of the other "reviews" you can tell. But basically THE BOTTOM LINE IS this film is fantastic to watch if you're a teen (14-17?) sat at home with your mates, smoking some weed. otherwise the slightly bland acting and story line engulfs the fact that its a film about KIDS IN THE WOODS TAKING SHROOMS!, i mean come on, it has to be watched at least once doesn't it?

Not a great plot, but the fact that it's a bit of a crazy film could make up for it if you are in the right state of mind. I wouldn't recommend watching this film if your looking for a serious type of "oh my god I've defecated my pants" film.

I cannot remember the last time a horror movie irritated me to this degree...SHROOMS is about a group of American friends (who actually don't appear to like each other much) who go to Ireland for vacation. They're obviously spoiled brats because the only thing on their mind when they're in freakin' IRELAND is getting their hands on some magic mushrooms ASAP. They meet up with some Irish friend (who is obviously British faking a bad Irish accent) that the lead girl (played by the creepy little girl from JC's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED--the rest of her face has now caught up with her forehead, thank goodness) is creaming over. They immediately go camping in the woods and searching for shrooms. VotD girl gnaws on a mushroom that the Irish-but-British guy specifically said not to eat because it's poisonous. Soon she starts flipping out and having flash-forwards about her friends dying. It's up to her to save her friends from the ominous backwoodsmen, the creepy black-hooded ghost that pops up between people legs and/or above their heads, and the obvious overused plot twists in the script.

It seems like every line of dialogue spoken by the obnoxious 20-somethings in this movie features the word "shrooms." And you thought JUNOisms were annoying! If you took a sip of your Irish coffee every time someone in this movie said "shrooms," you'd be dead before the first jump scare.

The only good thing about SHROOMS is the movie poster, which features a skull shaped out of SHROOMS in the moonlight. Cool!

Six dopes go looking for magic mushrooms in the backwoods of Ireland. While tripping on the shrooms, they encounter someone determined to kill them off and must fight for survival.

Awful, awful film! It's a disjointed, achingly dull mess. It feels like there is nothing happening 90% of the time. Watch as the lead runs from a cloaked figure that's anything but scary, then repeat ad nauseum. The editing, intended to be trippy or not, is just pathetic. I hated the characters. They're bitchy and obnoxious to the extreme. Terrible dialogue too, a great example being when two of the girls talk to a third about what she sees in her boyfriend. There are attempts at humor, but they all fall flat. The kills, or lack thereof, are weak. With a film this poor in all other areas, good kills were it's only hope of being anything but a total waste. Alas, we don't get to see half of them, and the others are nothing to write home about. I can't forget the ending, which is just laughable. I haven't been this annoyed with a movie in quite some time.

While browsing the DVD section around the time this was released, I had the misfortune of deciding to grab it on an impulse buy. Bad move! I fought the urge to just throw it in the trash, but the urge eventually won out. This thing belongs in a landfill.