Vittra

I went to see this movie at London Fright Fest 2013. I was really looking forward to see it as I love Scandinavian movies such as Deadsnow or Trollhunter. Many reviewers compared it to Evil Dead, so obviously my expectations were high - and that was the problem. Don't compare it to the cult classic, they have very little in common. Unfortunately I did not find Wither funny, nor scary, a little gory yes (but I'm sure you've seen it all before), and have to admit I was leaving the cinema quite disappointed. The plot isn't anything special, takes off slowly, and characters aren't helping either (I actually found two main characters really annoying).

I hope you'll going to like the movie more than I did, but please refrain from comparing it to Evil Dead.

Some young people decide to party and spend the night in an abandoned house in the woods. One by one they are possessed by… something and the possessed start attacking the not-yet-possessed. We only get a semi-explanation for why and what's going on, but that's really all that's needed. It's not the most original story of all time, but it works.

This Swedish horror movie is like a modern Evil Dead with more realistic gore effects, but most else is sadly not up to the same standard as the old cult-classic. After an initial horror scene to set the tone, we get a superficial presentation of the characters and why they are going to the house. This part is rather boring. I understand that they want to set up the characters and story, but we get mostly uninteresting talking. No interesting stuff happening, no funny jokes, and no good buildup of what's to come. Regarding the dialog: the lines themselves are mostly realistic during this part. However, the delivery isn't always that realistic, but not bad enough to be funny.

The movie does get better once the horror begins. There are some creepy parts and excellent gore effects. Despite this being a low-budget Swedish horror, the effects are up to par with a modern Hollywood horror movie, so kudos for that. The acting even improves a bit. However, I was a little annoyed at times at the inconsistent behavior of the possessed. Sometimes they can't attack the humans fast enough, yet at other times they just stand there and look.

I would recommend this to someone who is mainly interested in seeing some nice gore.

Yeah I also read all the buzz about this movie being the new Evil dead or whatever they were saying. I suppose it is like evil dead plot wise, group of kids go to a cabin (or abandoned house in this case)are all one by one possessed or infected by evil. Then gorily kill each other off.

Unfortunately that kind of comparison is unfair to Wither as it gives you certain preconceptions. Unlike Evil dead this movie has no sense of fun. It is far too serious and given the quite silly plot this doesn't work in its favour. The only laughs I had were at the main guys hair becoming quite crazy during one of the fights the brother characters generally cheesy appearance and the subtitle coming up for a quite obvious shouted expletive, twice. Also none of the characters seem to have a problem killing each other. These people are supposed to be long time friends but they quite happily shoot and stab each other in the blink of an eye.

It is fairly gory but if gore is what you're looking for it doesn't even do that in an original way. None of the kills are inventive. I had seen nearly every kill bar one (the one with the stool) done before. The effects are in the majority done with practical effects with a bit of CG help. There are a couple of CGI blood squirts which I loathe because the blood just vanishes. Overall the gore effects are good but not as extreme as some reviews claim. The possession make up for the actors is pretty good. More effort does seem to have been made with the brother character than anyone else though.

The Gore effects aren't the only time CG rears it's ugly head, there is added heavy rain in certain scenes that doesn't appear to be making the actors very wet (oops). Also some over the top clouds of dust and debris.

The ending is also a massive anticlimax you wait the whole movie to see the thing that caused all this mayhem. when you do finally see it it's a bit of a non event.

I was really looking forward to Wither I enjoyed the directors other movie Blood runs cold but this one lacked something for me.

This has probably the best mud-blood effects I've ever seen (mud-blood is the modern incarnation of blood that refuses to be red because that's a color and desaturation is all the rage - but in this case there's actual mud which helps). There are really good practical effects and non-stop craziness throughout and yet I still felt nothing.

It's all in service to those who came before. There's no ingenuity or true imagination at work here. It's so indebted to The Evil Dead it forgets to be its own thing and somehow winds up worse as a result. An up the ante riff on The Evil Dead shouldn't just feel like it's going through the motions. I can't quite put my finger on it, but this whole thing is just off in some way and it's all related to that somehow.

There's never a moment that makes your mind jump and heart leap at the sheer unexpectedness, the showmanship, it's just so much blood and splatter and god I hate that that sounds like a bad thing but here it is.

A group of friends head out for a weekend of fun at an abandoned cabin in the woods but unwittingly unleash an ancient evil that begins hunting them one-by-one.

So originality is not a key factor with 'Wither' but then it isn't supposed to be. What 'Wither' is though is an okay little cabin-in-the-woods story that evokes the gritty and primal feel of old school horror flicks of the 70s and 80s - the good and the bad.

The good: (1) There is minimal back story before we get to the "goods"; (2) The cast do an adequate job of looking pretty one minute then terrified the next; (3) There are some pretty neat practical effects throughout; (4) From the setting to the use of film grain, the entire film looks very gritty which helps set the atmosphere; (5) The horror set pieces are entertaining for the most part (and gore fans are well catered to).

The bad: (1) Things happen a bit too conveniently in order to push the film along and there are some breaks in the film's logic that were a bit jarring; (2) Although it's to be expected, there are A LOT of "Why would anyone do that?" moments which are really infuriating; (3) The neat practical effects are counterbalanced by some not-so-neat CG effects; (4) The film starts to drag towards the end and peters out into a bit of a ho-hum conclusion.

'Wither' is no classic but is enjoyable enough if you don't expect too much from it (and we all need films like these once in a while, right?). This is a simple cabin-in-the-woods story: no muss, no fuss. Worth a view.