The Retreat

For a B-Horror movie, this is about the best you can hope for. Not a terrible film, and fans of the genre will enjoy it. Especially since some annoying people get killed near the first part of the movie. Decently made movie, good direction, DP and script - uh, the 'acting' was sub-par for sure for most of the actors, but some were better than others. There isn't too much more to say - if you love slasher films you could do much worse than this one, but if you don't like this type of movie you'll probably hate it. The ending, like most of the film, can't help but being a little cliché but for what it is its done better than most low budget horror movies. I hated the female lead, I thought she sucked, but then again I seem to hate most female leads in modern low budget horror unless its Tifanny Shepis. So go see "Silent Scream" or the "Retreat" depending what title you see it under, just know what your expecting - definitely not the worst movie out there, but not really better than mediocre.

The above line of dialogue pretty much sums up this low budget slasher film. Although the acting is bad and the plot twist is inane, I did find a few positive things in this dreck. First off, we get a twist from the typical summer camp slasher, as this is a winter camp slasher. A group of students has been helping their professor with a semester long research project. To thank them, the prof sends them to a weekend retreat at his remote Michigan cabin. Which leads to the second positive: a LOT of people get killed, and it starts pretty quickly. There's even some decent gore, considering the micro budget. But on the bad side, almost all of the murders are shown twice. What the heck?? This film is twenty minutes too long anyway, so it's all just padding. In a nod to the classic 80s slashers, we do get boobs and sex, so combined with the gore and high body count, this wasn't a terrible way to spend an evening. Still, it's mostly inane and recommended for fans of slashers and overdone Michigan accents.

I got this from Netflix last night and it's easily the WORST movie I've seen in quite sometime-if not ever. It was so bad it irritated me and I turned it off. I couldn't get it back in the mail quick enough. It blows ass. It was so convoluted. The continuity made no sense. The acting is atrocious. The dialogue is banal. The direction is horrible. The characters are idiots. It's embarrassing. I suppose if I'd watched to the end there would have been a explanation and a pay-off (doubt it) but I was decided I'd rather paint my bathroom and watch the paint dry for more entertainment. Lionsgate usually distributes some pretty good films but this one is just terrible.

Agreeing to accompany a professor to a cabin in the woods for a psychology experiment, a group of students find themselves stranded with a savage killer knocking them off one-by-one, forcing them to try to get away alive.

Pretty much standard issue slasher fare here, not that it's a bad thing by any stretch and actually has some solid points to it. The atmosphere, with it's wintery woodland setting out in the middle of nowhere, the growing realization of what's going on and the different traps create a pretty nice set-up here, and then the fact that the killer tends to show up whenever it's necessary to off someone makes for some really enjoyable moments as well. The pace is great and the kills are outstanding, so it's got a lot going for it even though there's a few flaws. The final twist reveal is a total cheat and really works against the film, the characters' actions are plain idiotic, and the cheapness does shine through on occasion. Otherwise, this one's pretty fun.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and a sex scene.

Although most here, would rather it be: can't see you. But we saw it (don't know about you dear reader, maybe you wanna check on in, and decide if you want to watch it). Let me tell you though that this tries very hard to be clever. You would guess so, with the characters studying Psychology and all.

And the fact that they just behave like your average teenager (from a horror film), just goes to show you how bad ... our school system in general is! Seriously though: Of course there is more happening than usual (remember: it tries so hard!), but this only makes the whole thing more ridiculous.

If you sit through the end, you have watched a few good scenes. But you will also see something that is completely wrong ...