The Evil in Us

I really do not enjoy most films that are micro budgets but this film had some pretty decent effects and good enough acting. Right from the opening credits the editing looked pretty cool and with the early dialogue a lot of indie films talk too much or not enough but this film felt very smooth. Now what it did lack was originality as far as the plot is concerned, I mean 6 friends 2 cars the cabin get away, I swear if that is all we do in movies portraying America as far as fun is concerned no wonder other country's despise us. But the effects all in all were OK the music was nothing memorable and the pace during the middle could have sped up some. But the end was good by kind of tapping into our real life issues we are dealing with now was cool and it ended better than a lot of micro films so I think this one can be checked out if nothing serious is going on..

Cool idea, not enough scares, never felt a real connection with the characters. Hated the political tie in at the end.

Wouldn't watch again, but don't feel like I wasted all my time.

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.

In Seattle, the police encounter a bloody scene with a surviving mutilated girl. There is a mysterious group doing research on a virus which turns people into cannibals. Six young friends have a vacation in a remote cabin. They take a drug except for Brie which slowly turns the group of young people.

There isn't much here that is new or terribly interesting. It's a small horror that never really makes me care. I don't care about the six friends. I don't care about the police investigation. I don't care about the evil secret organization. It's nothing new in terms of gore fest. There is nothing terribly wrong except there is nothing compelling.

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.