Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2017
Images from the Internet
WTF!
Directed by Peter Herro
Midnight Releasing / Cthulhu
Productions
75
minutes, 2017
This
film has just been released on VoD
today (August 1, 2017), which makes sense since it’s definitely summer fare. To
sum it up and categorize it in a single descriptor that is to be further
deconstructed, it’s a cabin-in-the-woods-slasher flick.
In
my humble opinion, what the twin-subgenres needs to be anywhere interesting, considering
the umpteenth version of it, is some form of originality mixed into the formula.
Right from the start, they begin well with an obvious nod to the godfather
(godlessfather? godlessmother?) of all cabin in the woods films, The Evil Dead (1981). Got my attention,
for shizzle (yeah, I’m that old). Not to mention the nudity in the first 30
seconds. Maybe a great start.
There
is the mandatory – albeit brief – flashback bit, but there also seems to be a
flashforward to the future piece at
the beginning, as well. Ever more interesting.
As
we get into the meat-and-gravy of the core story, we meet a couple of… I want
to say overage college students? A pool party is raging, and we are introduced
to the mostly male doofuses that are also obligatory, including the king of the
cameos Shawn C. Phillips and (of all people) Perez Hilton. Is he still alive? A
decade ago or so he was omnipresent. Now, well, this is the first time I’ve
seen anything associated with him in a very long time. I don't have anything against
or for him, just an interesting choice for a semi-celeb walk-on. Anyway, yeah,
the guys are your typical genre skuzballs whose choice of topics are sex (here,
one says, “You still haven’t done anal? That’s Jesus’ favorite!”), being drunk,
hitting on women (even Donnie, the gay character played by Hilton, hits on the “hot
chick”), and drugs – in this case pot. A bit too cliché, methinks.
 |
| Callie Ott |
Some
of the other cliché characters include The
Stoner Jacob (Benjamin Norris, who is actually quite good in the role), the
ambiguously and possibly gay Bevan (Adam Foster), and the Mean Girl, Lisa (Sarah Agor). Rachel’s boyfriend Sam (Johnny James
Fiore) joins in, just in case she has (in her own truly clever wording) “a
spring breakdown.” What could possibly go
wrong, right? In total, the group includes four doods and three chicks (as
opposed to four men and three women).
Even
after the obligatory old guy at the gas station warns them to stay away, they
go on ahead. If I were rich, I would love to just own a lone gas station in the
middle of nowhere so when people ask for directions, I could say, “I’d turn
back ifn ah wuz you.” But I digress… Instead, they head on to the cabin where
they continue to act like complete asses. When Rachel thanks them for being supportive,
one guy responds with “Show us your tits!”
Now
I have to say, for a cabin, this is certainly a huge step up from the rustic
ones you usually see in these kinds of films. Perhaps it is a mile in the woods, with no Wi-Fi or hardly any phone signal,
but it’s huge, modern and has most of the amenities, having been owned by Jacob’s
uncle, before he…well….
About
half way through the film, the gristle starts to fly as these dum-dums get
picked off one by one. Now, I want to be clear, while I feel justified to be mocking
these characters, I do not want to
give the impression that this film is lacking for entertainment value. Rather,
there is a lot going on, some of it amusingly self-reflexive of the genre, which
is a good thing. For example, while a lot of the dialog is – pun intended –
WTF, it has a nice snarky tone, and some lines that are definitely quotable,
such as, “C’mon, my balls are like fuckin’ Smurfs right now!” And if one were
to make a drinking game of every time someone says, “Are you serious?!” in some
form or another, you’d be plastered by the end.
What
I get out of this is that rather than falling into merely formulaic characters,
director Peter Herro is acknowledging the
stereotypes that perpetuate this kind
of film. What leads me to believe that is a number of things, such as two women
having a pillow fight at a motel (seen through the window during a pan shot), and
one character doing that added vowel at the end of sentences when annoyed, such
as “You should dump him-muh!” and “I don’t know-wah!”
Then
again, this is the director’s first
film, so perhaps he’s being careful,
rather than striking out with too much
originality, i.e., playing it a bit on the safe side? I’m hoping to find out at
some point. If there is any real flaw to the film, specifically the script, it’s
that there is way too much talking during the first half of the film,
especially before the killing starts. Parts of the party scene at the very
beginning were painful in their over-sexualized tones. Don’t get me wrong, I
appreciate all the nudity, it’s the constant hitting on by the men and the relentless
ridiculing by the women. It goes beyond stereotype into drooling. But that’s
easily solved with script editing in the next film; I’m hoping there is more
for the director as this shows a large promise of things to come.
The
acting is quite well done, especially Ott and Norris (as I said earlier),
though everyone hits the mark with a decent reading and timing. The picture
certainly looks great, with some sharp photography and editing. The gore is not
abundant, and doesn’t need to be, but more important is that it looks good.
As
for the ending, yeah, I figured it out pretty quickly, though there was a
specific twist I did not see until near the end. Actually both guessing correctly
and not getting it made me happy. Be sure to stick around for the credits and
follow the art, as it continues the story.
Lastly,
and this is my own snarky humor that’s neither here nor there, and it’s meant
for a laugh, shouldn’t it be WTF? rather
than WTF! If it were me, I’d take the
easy way out with WTF?!
If
you’re a slasher fan, I sincerely believe that you won’t be disappointed. There
is just enough humor and tension – and even at least one jump scare – that make
a viewing worth seeking out.
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