A group of carpoolers will inexplicably wake up one morning in the middle of a forest, the home of a bloodthirsty cult.
Bloody and mysterious, but nothing you haven’t seen before. The dark and hostile opening sequence reeks of pending vulgar, cult-y death! The technique of cutting away to the humorous introduction of characters (future victims), but also the characters themselves constitute a… classic (American) horror story. Of course, the film is Italian, so let’s see how that translates.
Admittedly, the first bloody sequence, half an hour into the film, will cut your breath and make you want to avert your eyes, but chances are that you won’t. From then on, expect more of that, but not much more. It is a film you won’t discuss past the end credits. It has been done before numerous times in the last twenty years, and better: Wrong Turn (2003), Wolf Creek (2005), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), I Spit on Your Grave (2010), The Killing List (2011), The Ritual (2017), Midsommar (2019), etc. Adding all of the above to the mix doesn’t necessarily make the mix more flavoured.
On the other hand, this merely means that it cannot be gruesomely and morbidly entertaining. And it is; just don’t expect much. Writers/directors Roberto De Feo, Paolo Strippoli, and Netflix create an amalgamation of horrors with a touch of social pedantry and a hint of urban pseudo-philosophy.
The show is mainly stolen by Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, a compelling actress and, inarguably, one of the hottest women in the film industry. Coincidentally(?), she’s the leading actress of Revenge (2017), portraying a woman who suffers a vicious physical and sexual attack (and takes a bloody revenge after that). Exploitation film finds its roots in the early “talkies”, right after the silent era, and it seems that it still sells almost a hundred years later. I guess there’ll always be a supply as long as there is a demand. Even though I watch, analyse, and academically research films from every walk of life, I am a horror fan and watch all kinds of horrors. But, if one day that sub-genre eclipsed, I wouldn’t miss it. There is a hideous sadomasochistic psychology behind it, making it the harbinger of snuff films. But that is a different discussion for a different place.
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
