The Evil in Us

This film had so much going for it... and, sorry to say, so much going against it.

Here is your basic cabin in the wood on a lake horror yarn. A group of twenty-something friends decided to spend Independence Day together at a cabin one of their fathers has just bought. Unfortunately, something is wrong with the coke they've brought along and soon the madness begins.

So what has the film got going for it... The Director, Jason William Lee, has a decent eye for composition and some of the camera shots are really nice and interesting. The opening credits are the Horror genre's version of a Bond movie opening sequence; this is both beautiful and disturbing - I loved it and it really piqued my curiosity for the rest of the film. I also really loved the lake section, filled with lens flare, haze, and colour defusing. Also, the simple distortions, which represented the druggies vision, worked well.

The Story... Lee has come up with a secret organisation who are carrying out experiments on people they've kidnapped. This reminded me of Stephen King's clandestine "The Company" out of Firestarter. I do like a good conspiracy.

The Characters... Though most are your stereotypical cast it was the end sequence that really sent a cold shiver down my spine. The Husband and Wife looking over their guineapigs - this scene is still in my mind; nice work Mr Lee.

The Special Effects... Most are basic, and nothing new to write about, however, the girl on the bed is awesome. Just look at that chewed through left ankle... it's hanging on by a thread of flesh. Ouch!

But then there are the faults... Though I liked most of Lee's shooting, the one thing which really did diminish the film for me, especially because it had been so good up to this point, the hunger-raving cannibals. It would have been nice to keep the ingenuity coming instead of just going for the mindless running about, growling, and biting. How much scarier would they be if they still had a rational mind? They could have become cunning instead of just single-mindedly fulfilling their baser urges. Also, the attacks and kills could have been choreographed better. Lee does a good job at structuring his shots, but here it just gets messy. A major let down.

The Story & The Characters... in a lot of ways reminded me of Cabin Fever, it would have been good to create a couple of original characters instead of relying on the tried and tested. Though these are twenty-somethings, you could easily interchange them with any of the innumerable teens that usually end up in these situations. But hey, this is a horror film, so this is expected... to a degree... but it does wear thin. Also, did it have to take part in a secluded cabin on a hard to get to island... which, surprise surprise, has no cell reception... go figure!

However, the good does outweigh the bad, though this could have been a horror movie to talk about. At least it's worth a watch, if only once. So I'd recommend this to fans of the mad professor and cannibals.

The film opens with promise, considering it is billed as a horror movie. We are greeted with a blood-soaked appartment with 3 victims still lying in the aftermath of a savage crime. Visual effects and direction here are faultless. It is a pity the low budget made the police crime scene investigation look a bit too cheap ~ Hardly CSI Seattle. The police presance throughout is lacking and often a bit to "wooden".

The next scenes are the "Meet the main characters" scenes, and it's the old cliche of American teenage friends, disappearing off all by themselves to have a wild party full of Music, Booze, Sex, but this time includes the use of hard drugs. The "Cabin In The Woods" is actually a large house on a private island that is conveniantly owned by one of the teenagers parents. Another old horror flick cliche: Their cellphones don't work. Sadly this is where the film drags on, dwelling on the party far longer than is necessary, whilst the would be more interesting story, that of people being detained whilst being forced into taking a superdrug, the one that turns our happy campers into zombies, is reduced to an all to brief sideshow. This does not allow any depth of character in the bad guy to develop and as such his importance to the story is diminished, even when he is supported by two superb performances of a couple who are emotionally attached, the two most prominent of the prisoners that we get to see.

The movie eventually jumps into life, turning into a standard hack and slash affair. To be fair to the cast they deliver good performances in the fight scenes, unfortunately the camera angles make the whole visual effect very jumpy and disjointed. The fact that the film rushes the fight scenes, and rushes from one fight scene to the next to get them all in, adds to the jumpy feel of this part of the movie. If they had cut the party scenes down and added to the fight scenes, a better result would have ensued.

The ending is well surprising. What was the movie meant to be? An anti-drugs polemic? It fails on that. Horror movie buffs are accustomed to far worse ways to go than taking a bit of powder. It is Canadian Left-Wing produced, so why not make the bad guy a Right-Wing Republican Senator? That may please the American Left but will surely infuriate the American Right. When it comes to it's role as being a piece of Canadian/American Left Wing propaganda, I myself being a British subject wanting not to interfere with American politics here, I must say that I cannot possibly comment.

My quick rating - 5,0/10. Sheer moments of brilliance in this movie get dragged down by some really bad casting and lack of continuity. The opening credits absolutely drag you in. Shot and edited wonderfully I really just wish whoever was responsible stuck around for the whole film. The story itself is nothing new. This time a group of people head to a cabin in the woods (not too cliché, right? ) for a fun filled weekend. Of course this includes the usual, drinking, sex, oh, and a virus laced bag of cocaine that turns your average paranoid user into a zombie like rage freak who only knows killing. The first crime scene found in the wake of a night of partying is a gorefest with one of the worst looking compound fractures I recall seeing in along time. Unfortunately this is where the lack of continuity kicks in. Great looking scenes like this that get lost in overdrawn pointless moments of which character can act like a bigger snob. The pacing really dragged at times and this gets distracting up until it really gets going. That being said, I found myself interested throughout and at the end you realize after being drawn into a mediocre horror film, you just watched the longest, most violent anti-drug commercial with a huge underlying tone of slamming American politics in recent history. Still worth a view if nothing better is on and for being an indie budget flick it does pack a decent punch and solid message.

How many times is this old chestnut going to be rehashed? It's a weak story-line and when it's set in the middle of nowhere, you know that they had zero budget to work with. Even if you'd thrown money at this, the concept wouldn't have been worth it. That said, the acting is fairly good and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the cast didn't go on to better things - although, the only way is up for this lot, as far as their acting careers go! I think the evil mastermind behind the plot, was the worst actor of the lot, managing to overact his (small), wobbly-headed part astronomically badly. If you've got no pins left to stick into your eyes and nowhere left on your body to self-harm, this might be worth a watch. If I'd paid to see this at the cinema, I'd be a bit annoyed and I'd hunt down the five-year-old who produced the script and take his crayons away indefinitely. Don't rush out and buy this, or even pay to see it, unless you have zero expectations of life, or think Adam Sandler is funny, in which case you will love it. The movie will probably exceed it's budget in sales, but that won't be hard.

Don't listen to all the negative reviews. Although I'll admit the movie won't win any awards, the story is semi decent and the special effects are actually really good. The actors could've been a bit better also.