In the town of Grockleton, the “Landlord” and his minions (Pooch, Pike, and Dobbin) preside over the Beesley’s Manor. The “Landlord” is on the look out for his new bride and child to carry on the Beesley name and watches anyone who dares to enter Grockleton.
When a young couple, a coming-of-age boy, and a lost husband & wife duo enter the land, the hunt is on. After discarding an unworthy lady, the “Landlord” soon finds his future bride and realizes that she is carrying something of even greater value to him. But someone is fighting for her as well. After much bloodshed, an unlikely trio form to fight back against their attackers and the hunters soon become the hunted.
The story plays like a warped Terry Gilliam fairytale mixed with stylized survival horror like that of Alexandre Aja. This is an ambitious effort by first time feature director Peter Stanley-Ward who only had a minuscule budget and no lighting (one scene being lit entirely by a cell phone!).
Parts of the film were shot on green screen with the use of a CGI rendered backgrounds. The results are something aesthetically pleasing similar to the movie “300”, but with less of a cartoonish feel. Some of the scenes appear as though they were taken from a comic book that leaps off the pages, mixed with incredibly engaging survival horror scenes.
The only problem with this is that a viewer looking either for beautiful CGI lands or purely gory kills might be disappointed. Both the fantasy & survival horror subgenres are mixed splendidly, but there are not enough kills for it to stand on its own. The deaths are great though with the young couple in the woods taking the most brutal beating. And while there is much blood sprayed, it is mixed in with other family-friendly type scenes. And those scenes either have dialogue with the gruesome villains or involve humor in some way. This would almost make a good fantasy film suitable for children 13 and up. The SFX, CGI or not, look great. This is the strong point of the film.
There is also minimal dialogue, which is refreshing. Usually horror films have characters constantly shouting, “Oh my God! What’s going on? Don’t go in there! Can you hear me? Oh shit! Help! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” to the point where you want the characters dead. But these characters just talk when necessary. For instance, when wife Susan spots a girl getting kidnapped from her hotel room window, she doesn’t spend 5 melodramatic minutes arguing with her dimwit boyfriend about what she saw and why she must leave. She simply says, “We’re leaving NOW” and it cuts to them already hightailing it out of there.
And there is one hysterical moment when little Marcus thinks he has the upper hand against one of the killers and declares like a hero, “No need to… hang around,” but his plan doesn’t go according to plan and he is left on his ass like an idiot. But sadly, the humor is rather muted in the rest of the film and the light approach to the material reduces any possible tension.
Original music is provided by David James Nielsen (TALES FROM BEYOND) and the film stars Warwick Davis (LEPRECHAUN 1-6), Dan Palmer (EVIL ALIENS), Chris Wright (FREAK OUT), and Howard Lewis (BRAZIL).
Favorite Quote: “We always get lost on an adventure and we are on an adventure,” right before driving into the strange town and finding trouble.
Bottom Line: Very beautifully shot horror film that leans more toward beauty than horror.
Rating: 6/10
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