Cub

To begin this review , I must say that taking into consideration that this was the director's feature film debut , he did extremely well. The direction was the best thing about this film. Now , the issue of this film comes from it's script.It lacked focus. The story is simple enough : 12 year Sam goes camping , he his bullied by the other scouts and even by one of the scoutmaster (And his evil dog!) . When Sam tries to warn everybody that he saw a character from an Urban legend , Kai (an animal/boy who eats people) he his laughed at so Sam ends up developing a rather strange and disturbing relationship with Kai that would turn this Camping trip into a living nightmare! So the story is fairly straightforward as you can see but the issue is the writers felt necessary to add small layers/subplot to it that makes it more complex then it should. I can go on to much details or I will spoil the films.Let just say that the director gave Sam a mysterious background that raises a lot of questions but none of them are answered by the end of the film. For me ,personally, Cub is very good up to it's last 10 minutes.Great atmosphere, great direction,great acting by it's lead actor but the above issue I have with the film gives us an ending that leaves things to the viewers imagination. Your personal enjoyment of that film will come to this at the end : If you like to have a clear ending to your film , I am afraid you will be disappointed by Cub but if you are the type of person that loves a film to end in an ambiguous sort of way I believe you would find much to like in that film. Outside of this , Cub do a lot of things right. So if you are up for a very dark little film that has a very strong and shocking yet confusing ending you could do much worse then this trip to the wood. I give Cub a 6 out of 10

That's an advice anyone participating in a horror movie should follow. But if they did, we wouldn't have a movie, would we? So if you like a good slasher/horror/backwoods movie, you will "enjoy" this. It won't redefine the genre, but it knows its rules and where to go without losing the audience.

A European horror movie that has the template down, the acting is OK, the effects are really good too. It's not too explicit (only from time to time there's a violence spike), but when it is, you get to see quite a bit of violence. The ending might confuse a few people, but I liked the way it prepared us for what was about to happen ...

This movie will not give you something new. It is typical not many scares, but it keeps you interested till the end.

People go into the woods and they try in a way, to come out alive. Although it is a typical slasher movie as many said, it has a nice angle, not a lot of blood or nudity and sex. It focuses on the characters mostly and the story. This helps you get more involved with the movie and sympathize with the characters.

The cinematography and the directing is descent and the script keeps you till the end. But don't expect a lot of blood and scares. It has a kind of old time flavor horror movies; it gives you the thrills not much gore. If you want to see a lot of gore and blood watch another movie. Also the music is eerie.

The ending is very interesting and the psychological aspects of it, will make you wonder for a bit.

Considering the fact I did in fact seen many movies like Cub, I'll try to keep the comment short. Why? Well, maybe I got tired of repeating myself, as Cub copied other productions before it.

It kinda feels like a blend between Wilderness and Haute Tension, it could be considered an OK movie by people that are strangers to horror, especially in the woods type. Not horrible, not bad, not stupid, but not that new either, does have that gory touch, to make it more shocking yet it still doesn't seem enough.

You could watch it, not for scares, but to see another horror, if you're a fan of such movies, and this will be the only reason I can recommend Cub. I'm glad I did, had a little portion of fun with it, found it an OK horror, considering I've had my share of such films, seen plenty and will continue to do so, thus, Cub, a 5/10 stars film in my books, feels like a breath of fresh air comparing to other non sense.

Cheers!

"Welp" generated quite a hype here in our lovely little country of Belgium because it allegedly is the very first horror movie to emerge from here; - or at least from the geographical Dutch speaking part named Flanders. That just isn't true since we previously had horror (and cult) classics such as "Devils of Darkness", "Lucker", "Parts of the Family", "Afterman" and "Engine Trouble". It's even debatable that this is the first horror film to be spoken entirely in Flemish because there exists also "Linkeroever", "Alias", "De Potloodmoorden" and an obscure little dud called "The Antwerp Killer". But, seriously, who cares if it isn't the first? It also isn't the most inventive horror movie and it certainly isn't the greatest horror movie ever made, but what counts most is that "Welp" is inarguably a highly entertaining Belgian horror outing with a tense & gripping atmosphere, strong acting performances and a bit of nasty gore footage. The protagonists in "Welp" are all junior boy scouts, which was a terrific idea of writer/director Jonas Govaerts, as this is a typically Belgian phenomenon. Practically everyone in this country joined some kind of scout federation in their youth. Yours truly didn't, and I can assure you that I was quite the outcast in school because of this. On Wednesday afternoons all my classmates went to the woods to play scout games, while I went home to my couch and watch horror movies that I wasn't allowed to watch yet. Ah, memories…

One of the boy scouts, Sam, is a bit of an outcast as well. On their way to the Southern Belgian backwoods (called "The Ardennes") for their annual survival camp, Sam spots a mysterious shape and secret hideout place between the trees, but nobody believes him. Little Sam is right of course, as the forestry area soon turns out to be the turf of a vicious serial killer and his bewildered infant sidekick. The other cubs constantly humiliate Sam and the scout leaders are too busy with making out and being arrogant, but they won't be able to ignore the deadly booby-traps that are placed all around the woods. "Welp" features a large number of clichés and stereotypes, but I suppose that is almost inevitable when you're making a slasher throwback movie. The parts that are similar to "Friday the 13th" and other classics could also easily be referred to as homages, for that matter. More important is that director Jonas Govaerts perfectly knows the true meaning of the term "horror" and he isn't afraid to break through taboos or insert shocking plot twists. For example, there are a couple of disturbing death sequences involving young children and even a scene where a dog is used as a piñata! Furthermore is the atmosphere of the film continuously macabre and unsettling, with an almost complete lack of humor in the script, but a strong presence of tenebrous camera-work and frightening music. The acting performances are terrific, too. The young actor Maurice Luijten impresses the most, but also Titus De Voogdt and the lovely Evelien Bosmans are very good as the scout leaders. Stef Aerts gives the best grown-up performance as the arrogant and self-centered scout leader Baloo. His behavior might seem exaggerated, but according to several former cub friends of mine, idiotic leaders like him apparently do exist.