Small Town Folk
Supposedly funded mostly by the cast and crew, this film was said to originally only intended as a short film, but somewhere along the line ended up as a full length feature. That might explain why this movie sucks so bad. I’m a fan of survival horror, especially when it comes to strange locals in secluded homes/towns, so naturally I was already interested in seeing this. When I discovered that a majority of the movie would be shot in front of a green screen, giving it a cool little artsy neon-colored backdrop, I was pumped. Sadly, aside from some of the nice CGI scenery, the movie has nothing else going for it.
The story presented in the feature is one of the thinnest and plot-hole-ridden ones I’ve seen in quite a while. On top of that, the characters are cliché, idiotic, and uninteresting. Usually in cases like this, it’s the gore that keeps the viewer from walking out, but sadly, that’s also non-existent. Sure, we get some blood splattered and sprayed here and there, and a horrible beheading, but that’s about it. If all-else fails, there’s comedy right? Wrong. Although the movie attempts to deliver comedic moments, they’re so poorly scripted and executed, that it almost seems as though you have to force yourself to crack some sort of smile to acknowledge it was an attempt at being humorous.
So, the story is nothing we haven’t already seen countless times before — a couple decides to go on a little road trip “adventure,” but get lost along the way. While asking a strange overweight middle-aged vagrant on the side of the road for directions, they’re interrupted by his “little person” friend that’s hunched over on his back for some reason. The little guy warns them to go straight through the road and not take a detoured path leading to a place called “Grockleton,” as it could also lead to grave danger. Naturally, since they’re seeking “adventure” they ignore the warnings and take the path anyway, where they come across a secluded bed & breakfast-type lodge, and choose to stay the night there. The next thing they know it, they’re running for their lives from an odd family of violent idiots.
The family in this film is probably one of the worst interpretation of a homicidal redneck family I’ve seen. Most of them were mentally handicap, with the exception of the leader/manager of the lodge. One guy is slow-witted and badly cross-eyed, leaving him with difficulties seeing, but that didn’t stop the family from giving him a gun. Then there’s a guy who wears goggles and drinks gasoline straight from the tank for some odd reason. Are these guys supposed to be funny? They came off more as annoying each time they were on screen. If you can somehow get passed those brainless thugs, you’ll then meet the neighboring family, who were much more interesting, as they posed as scarecrows and wore creepy masks. Then there’s the mysterious burly father-figure who even the lead from the lodge is afraid of. Sadly, this second family isn’t really explored much, and we’re mostly left with the annoying numbskulls.
As you might have already guessed, Warwick Davis (Willow, Leprechaun series) has a role in the film (guess which one), but once again we’re led to believe it’s a major one, but in fact, he’s just there to give our leads the clichéd warning, totaling less than a handful of minutes on screen. What a waste of a cameo. With the teasers and promotional photos, we’re also led to believe that most of the film would be depicted in front of a green screen, but the reality is that we only got to witness this interesting CGI backdrop in the night scenes, and scenes involving the lodge only. The rest of the movie is just in an actual rural/wooded area. It’s in these scenes that the film’s obvious low-budget is apparent.
This was an interesting, but failed, effort from first-time writer/director Peter Stanley-Ward. Had they stuck with more of the creative little CGI backdrop then maybe the movie would have been a somewhat creative treat in an otherwise unoriginal sub-genre.
The movie is just a repeat of the characters and situations we’ve seen countless times in the survival-horror sub-genre. Although they attempted to blend an artsy CGI backdrop to give it a creative little neon look in certain scenes, this wasn’t used as much as it should have been, so we’re mostly left with a boring, unfunny, clichéd, plot-hole-ridden, wasted attempt at a feature film. Do yourself a favor and skip this whenever it becomes available in the US.
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