Tales from the Lodge

I wasn't expecting much when I stumbled across this title, but have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Quirky offbeat humour with a few laugh out loud moments and an absurdity that enhances, rather than detracts, from this mash up of camp-fire story telling, and comedy suspense. Definitely worth the watch and worthy of a better rating than it has on IMDB.

A group of old friends gather at a remote lodge by a lake to scatter the ashes of their friend who drowned himself there 3 years earlier. They pass the time telling each other horror stories.

Oddly enough the 'big chill' element of old friends coming together is more enjoyable than the admittedly intended lighthearted horror tales, which are pretty weak. When away from this the cast aren't half bad and make good company pending the inevitable real horror which will follow - which, when it comes, is a bit of a stretch but not bad. I've seen a lot worse.

5 friends, 2 couples 1 guy with a new Girlfriend head to a house in the country to spread the ashes of a friend who commited suicide in a nearby lake.

Yeah it sounds like every horror story ever made and it is but it trys to play on these horror tropes by telling stories about horror tropes.

Its not an awful concept but overall it just lacked an edge in its comedy and its horror and dwindled along. Having said that the last half hr did get interesting and was the best part of the film.

Unfortunately for me it was too little to late and even then was incredibly cliche.

The production was good and the acting adequate but overall nothing more than average. Would have been a 5/10 but the interesting ending bumps it up a star

6/10 - save it for a rainy day

I watched the UK TV premiere of this but found it disappointing, both as a comedy and as a horror anthology. The only two actors that I had heard of is Mackenzie Crook and comedian Johnny Vegas. I find Crook's acting rather lacklustre, I wasn't impressed by his Worzel Gummidge either. Johnny Vegas, with his foul language and fart gags, is funny when doing TV sketches but his comedy doesn't work so well on the big screen. The short stories are rather lame, the best of a bad bunch has zombies and Vegas looking like Keifer Sujtherland from Lost Boys. The only thing that really made me laugh is when some ashes of a friend are thrown towards a lake but a sudden gust of wind blows them back and all over a group of mourners. Beware of fake reviews!

The cast are great including Kelly Wenham who I hadn't heard of before, as is the scene setting, but the stories they tell are absolute rubbish. The comedy element works well, it's just those stories..

Watched on Amazon Prime, and had real trouble hearing a lot of the dialogue, had to put headhones on as I had to turn it up to levels where the sound effects rocked the room just to hear the dialogue otherwise.