The Reeds

I stumbled across this recently on Lovefilm and it seemed an interesting idea. The cast is pretty natural and includes the always watchable Will Mellor. The characters are thankfully quite likable which is rare for a horror movie and makes you care more about what happens to them.

The setting on the Norfolk broads is stunning and quite eerie which is of a huge benefit to the film. It's certainly not a place you'd want to be stranded.

This isn't an out and out horror more of a ghost story but there is a nice air of tension built up throughout and some creepy scenes. You will probably guess what's going on from a long way out but it's handled so well it doesn't really matter.

For a film with a very modest budget this is an impressive effort and I found it very enjoyable.

As usual some of these reviews seem placed by people attached to the project! There's a lot of Love or Hate hmmmm. This is often the case with these lower budget films but...

For what its worth, this is a solidly performed low budget horror with a less than solid conclusion. The journey is fun to watch and compelling although the cinematography is slightley dated.

For high-end scares / gore / violence (those things you expect from indie horror) you may find this lacking. But then so are most big budget Hollywood offerings.

If you like the genre, this is far from the worst flick out there. Worth a spin. ******

A weekend boating party turns into a nightmare for a group of young Londoners when they stumble upon a terrifying secret hidden in the reeds.

This film is troubled for one reason: it makes absolutely no sense. Burned dog, bloody make-out parties, caged remains underwater... even as we find out more about the story, it makes no sense. I cannot get into any real depth without revealing too much, but I will say if you are waiting for answers, you will not find many.

That major caveat being said, the film itself is a fine piece of work -- good acting, good cinematography, good music and lighting. All that can go into a film to make it good has been done here, but the story just was not done right.

If you can get past the thick accents (this is a British flick), THE REEDS is not half-bad. A group of young people are on a boating cruise, and end up running afoul of some less-than-pleasant locals. Plotwise, we're in WRONG TURN territory, only on water instead of solid ground. The gore is minimal, although the suspense builds pretty well. Very low budget, so don't expect anything out of the ordinary. As I recall, this film was running back to back or concurrently on another channel with PRIMEVAL, the Aussie or New Zealand flick about a killer croc. I have to say in all honesty that I prefer PRIMEVAL. But why not watch them both and decide for yourself.

Not so much a film as another painfully lacklustre reminder of the uninspired state in which the once-great UK horror scene is currently languishing. The first two failings of this excursion into lukewarm waters are casting a Craig David lookalike with the acting ability of a four year old, and casting an actor who is best known for his long standing roles in the cursed training grounds of Hollyoaks and Two Pints. Not a good move to miscast your lead roles with these two. The third is leaning way too heavily on location for effect, which quite clearly highlights the lack of effort put into the plot and script. The Fens are actually a very original and genuinely creepy setting for a horror film; just not this one. Acting talent from the female cast members doesn't offer much either, and britflick regular Geoff Bell hamming his part up to the hilt only adds to the comical side of things. Overall a vague mess of a movie. Triangle did more or less the same story, but a little better. My advice to budding UK horror writers is to aim for something different. Seriously people... Nobody cares anymore about photogenic city types getting into trouble in the countryside.