The Undertow

A group of friends go camping, but they're soon to find out that the locals don't take too kindly to city folk. Ok, it's far from an original concept, but I'm always delighted when I find an independent film that exceeds my expectations. Especially an indy of the horror genre, which is abundant and for the most part all crap. But this is one of those rare birds that stands head & shoulders with the "big boys". Taking me back to the glory days of '70's-type horror films. It lacks action for a good half of the film, but the characterization more then compensates. And when the gore DOES arrive, it does in spade! In many (if not all) ways better then the same year's "Wrong Turn"

My Horror Grade: B+

DVD Extras: Behind-the-scenes; Blooper Reel; Deleted scenes; Stills gallery; two versions of the theatrical trailer; Trailers for "Christmas Season Massacre", "China White Serpentine", "I spit on your corpse, I piss on your grave", "Insaniac", "Savage Harvest", "Ice from the Sun", and "Scrapbook" PLUS 3 Easter Eggs for you to find "River Hound" (short clip of a dog); "On Location" and "Bonk/ Stanze"

I wasn't really expecting much from this one, especially since everyone's been coming out with backwoods homicidal hillbilly flicks these days (Wrong Turn, House of 1000 Corpses, TCM Remake, etc), and it's a direct-to-video release (so you never know what you're going to get), but I can honestly say that this was one of the best independent horror films that I've seen in a long time!!!!

The story's nothing really groundbreaking, but it's the way director Jeremy Wallace and crew pulls this movie off that's so refreshing. What I appreciate the most about the movie is that it's very straight forward and serious in its handling of the horror elements of the story (unlike that crappy Cabin Fever flick), which is something you rarely see in horror films these days. The film is very much in the vain of the great 70's horror flicks like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Like those films, the story is simple in nature, and yet it delivers a wonderful sense of dread and tension with a brutal dose of well-executed gore!!!

I've seen Wallace's first flick, The Christmas Season Massacre, and while I thought that movie was good for what it was (horror spoof), he really took a major step forward as a director with this flick (he even wrote the simple, yet extremely effective score for the film). Wallace's confident direction is aided by some fantastic editing and cinematography by Eric Stanze (director of Ice From The Sun and Scrapbook) and a cast that's way above average for a movie of this budget level, who all turn in great performances (especially Trudy Bequette and Julie Farrar).

Horror fans should definitely check this baby out! Like I said, it's nothing original, but it definitely delivers what it promises, which is more than I can say for most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood these days!

Six friends enter the strange town of Old Mines for a weekend float trip. They quickly realize that the town is not friendly to strangers, and they are pressured to leave by the police. When the friends decide to continue their float trip anyway, terrifying secrets of the town surface. A seven-foot-tall deformed maniac, known by the townsfolk as The Boy is kept under lock and key by the town's mayor. The Boy's purpose is simple: kill outsiders. The Mayor of Old Mines releases The Boy and the maniac's hunt begins. One by one, the campers on their float trip are ripped to gory shreds by the enraged, deformed, hulking Boy.

Gore is the main focus of the film and there are only a few good kills in it. The first crushed head was amazing; other than that there's lots of severed limbs, eye gouging, stomach gouging, and a steak through the head. The gore effects were pretty cool, but there wasn't nearly enough.

The young director and crew show some promise, but they need to polish up on the basics first.

Camera: A lot of the film was incredibly shaky. I'm sure it was done on purpose, but it really didn't work for the best. There were some creative angles here and there though that were kind of neat.

Edit: On one side we have some really cool grainy effects, but other than that a few edits were off by a little bit.

Lighting: The picture was way too white in a ton of the scenes.

Music: The best part of the technical features. Really cool background music and effects here.

Acting: This is what I was expecting to cringe at. Fortunately it wasn't too bad at all. All of the main characters were on the same b-movie sub-par level. The town folk were unnatural and some of the lines were crappy, but the acting surprisingly didn't take away from anything. No one stood out as good or bad, so good job.

Final Thoughts: There wasn't a kill or scare of any kind until 46 minutes into it. There was way too much sappy pointless dialogue where there should of been pointless gore and killing. Some of the scene ran too long and at times the artsy type of editing was not working at all. For a sub-rosa movie...it was alright though. Next time focus on the gore because without real actors the dialogue and story won't work for you. Jeremy Wallace and Eric Stanze's efforts seem to be getting better and better...hopefully one of these days they can really put something nice together..I hope they keep it up and keep improving.

For an extremely low budget movie, this flick was pretty good. The sound is shoddy in spots (a boom Mic could have been the answer)and the night (dark) scenes appear a little grainy. The acting wasn't terrible(not saying it's good either), but the actors themselves were pretty ugly. There's some effects that made no sense to me during dialog, like when Billy visit's the campers and tells them of what's going on in the town. During her story they kept cutting to the campfire with an annoying high pitched noise. I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve with this. However, I like the story, as it has that classic early 80's babes in the woods getting stalked by maniac that has an obvious deformity type of plot. The killer is very reminiscent of Jason in Friday the 13th Part 2. It's kind of like a Jason and Leatherface character mixed together. There's plenty of gore in this one too.

I just watched the movie and to be direct, it was a waste of time. I sensed it after the first 20 mins or so, but I guess I had plenty of time to waste so I kept on till the end.

Not a fan of the genre anyway, but I tell you this movie ain't gonna be fun for anyone else but those who cant stand their day without some gore before their eyes. Cause thats what it was after all.

First half of the movie was a boring trip and a lil introduction to the boring "heroes", while the second one was about running, hiding and guess what.....killing/dying.

Still its always nice to see few ppl trying to make a movie. I cant blame them for trying to make the new "Blair Witch..." but..... guys next time better try with a whole idea of your own.

The movie's been out for 3 years, so if you needed to see it you would have already. If not, take my word, don't bother.