Cabin of the Death

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.

Hailed by many as the new (or next) EVIL DEAD, WITHER turned out to be a bit of a let down as its conclusion and end credits withered away. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this. Just not nearly as much as I had anticipated. Where shall I begin?

Without a doubt, WITHER was pretty well done considering the low budget. The acting was decent. The setting was cool. The gore effects were better than expected. But that's about where it stops. The story was too simple and the characters were not given enough...not sure of the word I am looking for...depth, maybe? There just wasn't much of a back story in general. The actors did good with what they were given. The finale was...well, if you blinked you may have missed it. Nonexistent for the most part.

This really had a chance to be great, but instead it withered along the way in becoming just average. I promise I won't use the word "withered" again in this review, but it's damn hard not to! Overall a decent film. Much better than most low budget horrors these days, if only the story would have been told a bit better. And the death scenes could have been a little more creative. The ending is the biggest let down of all though, in my eyes.

Good acting. Good setting. Great gore effects. Limp story. Lame ending. Still worth a view. Just don't expect this to be up to par with the original EVIL DEAD, because if you do, you will be sadly let down. EVIL DEAD set the standard for how to make a scary, no budget horror film. Hopefully, if a WITHER 2 is somewhere on the horizon, a bigger budget and better storytelling will emerge and just maybe we will get the Swedish equivalent of DEAD BY DAWN: THE EVIL DEAD II. Just maybe...

Watch out, folks!! The Swedish "Evil Dead" is here...

In horror Movies curiosity usually kills the cat, but reinventing old Movies Always kills the Movie. Some Movies are just better off left alone. Evil Dead is such a Movie because it is a true Product of its day. You cannot outshine Bruce Campbell, nor the great atmosphere and the ingenious, although amateurish, sfx.

For such a small country as Sweden we have succeeded in delivering so many international stars within the Movie industry: Max Von Sydow, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Mauritz Stiller, Gösta Bergman, Stellan Skarsgård. Now, Vittra won't go down in history as the ultimate Swedish Movie, however, it is far better than I expected and I am not a fan of Swedish Movies, especially Movies within the action and the horror genres where we suck big time. Why? Because we haven't succeeded in creating our own identity within those two genres. The dialog just doesn't work, it just sounds silly and the action sequences is retarded and static and the Movies themselves lack ingenuity. Everything tries to be American. That said, I love and prefer American Movies because they give me what I want, i.e. Entertainment. But when genres lack their own identity and at that, instead, tries to be something they cannot be...well I Think you know how the result will turn out...

Plot: a Group of Young friends decides to get together for a weekend in a cabin in the Woods to catch up. One of them wonders off to explore and silence her curiosity, when she returns something has changed...

Well, what to say? It is not bad, in fact, it is quite good. Of course, the weight is on the sfx and as I mentioned above, it lacks story, originality, wit, identity. Above all, it is too much Evil Dead to be taken seriously to any degree. Nevertheless, it is not, thank God, cheesy and badly executed. The dialog sucks and it just sounds silly.

To my fellow Swedes, I can't really compare Vittra to any other Swedish Movie within the genre since we don't make a lot of these. The only Movie that comes Close is Evil Ed (1995) which is, truly, a cheesy Movie, so cheesy that it becomes funny. To my international colleagues, Watch this one if you like "Evil Dead" or any other Movie about people being stuck somewhere and stalked by creatures of the unknown.

I give it 5 out of 10 because it is well made, good sfx and lots of gore. It lacks any degree of originality and it is one of those Movies where the directors/creators just want to show off their technical skills in order to get funds for their next venture, which I Believe they will. But Vittra will not stand the test of time like Evil Dead.

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.

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.