The Maus

This movie is billed under horror but is definitely not what most would consider conventional horror. It's more like the story of a couple places in horrific situations. That being said, I have to agree with the other reviews saying that it is largely 90min of watching people walk around. The premise is about a couple who are lost in the Bosnian woods, when they encounter a pair of suspicious men who offer to lead them to safety. The girlfriend comes off as a bobble head with anxiety issues, constantly afraid of everything and everyone and arguing with her boyfriend at each and every decision. Also, how does a 100lb girl survive a landline explosion with only a flesh wound? There's an unseen entity that seems to follow them around while they traverse land mines (wtf were they doing in the woods to begin with?) The whole thing felt like a bad European nightmare version of Deliverance, only without any decent actors.

Firstly, let me start with some positives. I thought the theme of the film was interesting, to do with land mines and the Bosnian War, and presumably atrocities and genocidal acts. I have to say before watching it I did not know much about what I was about to watch. I have to say I was mislead to believe it was Horror, but in actual fact it feels more like a Dark Thriller with themes of Horror and War i.e. there was clearly a Deliverance vibe going on at the start, and aside from the creepy looking Guardian Angel that would be about where the horror side of things ends.

The filming style was fun for the first few minutes, but an hour and a half later of revolving cameras, darkness, and behind the head shots it all seemed a bit ridiculous and you wonder how a supposed 2 million euro budget (according to Wikipedia) was used up on just 4 actors, a forest and a great deal of what I can only describe as pointless videography.

Without trying to slate it too much, I found 'Alex' to be fairly unbearable, as an overly dramatic naive young chap who was an insufferable wannabe man-to-the-rescue but simply lacked any strength both physically and of character; Extremely annoying in every way possible. I think 'Selma' was at least interesting and played her role well though unfortunately this leads me on to my next comment about The Story, which overall I can once again only describe as being fairly 'pointless' or insubstantial. There were some interesting psychological moments where it felt like the dread was closing in, but then once the cat was out of the bag there wasn't much left to say. I knew from the moment I saw the car 'stuck' in the road in the very first scene that this movie was not exactly going to win any Oscars. I really am surprised about the budget here and can only presume the directors paid themselves substantial salaries through some questionable laundering function - But seriously, overall it wasn't the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and certainly illuminating in some regards. I think a 5/10 is generous, I'd say more like a 4.5 but I suppose I've rounded up.

One more comment: I saw that 'Maus' according to Wikipedia is an 80s/early 90s graphic novel about a Holocaust survivor, so I suppose that's what would have inspired the name of this movie.

Thank you for reading.

I'm not sure which was worse, the movie or reading the reviews praising the movie. It was terrible. Great premise made bad by a plot way too slow to develop, confusing plot motivators, and a total WTF? ending.

And this is one of them.

I kinda got what the director was trying to say and it does work in certain aspects but the film is too dark , depressing and slow.

It is quite visceral and while there isn't a lot of gore and much is left to the imagination, it is in the vein of torture porn akin to movies like Hostel.

It started off quite well and seemed an original setting in Bosnia but the pace is turgid and the lack of subtitles does have a slightly negative effect on the viewer and I speak Slovak and Czech and could understand some of what was being said, it still was annoying and confusing to not know exactly what is being said at times and I know the director was using this for effect but it did not work in my opinion!

Its definitely not a 1 or 2 out of 10 as many of the other reviewers have said but then you cannot legislate for the crash, bang, wallop expectations of the pea brained reviewers who cannot seem to delve into the deeper elements of the subject and story the director was trying to put forth! The acting also was not bad , particularly from the female lead; i though she was excellent contrary once again to all the other reviewers who gave it a poor 1 out of 10 which means its the worst movie you have ever seen which it definitely is not; we have movies like "THE BAD BATCH" for that!

If you remove the scenes that involve walking, the transitions between scenes where the screen is black and the scenes dominated by the backs of heads... You'll have 3 mins of actual content left. The blackout transitions were so long my TV actually went into standby mode a few times.