Synopsis: Two couples spending a weekend in the country cross paths with a brutal serial killer. As the body count rises, suspicion turns into paranoia.
Typical young couple Paige (Sophie Linfield) and Calvin (Rhys Meredith) are headed on holiday to a remote home in the woods. Along the way they pick up Calvin’s hussy of a younger sister and Tristan, the arrogant businessman she’s picked up the night before in a pub. When they arrive, the local constable informs them that a serial killer nicknamed “The Tree Surgeon” is running amok in the area. Tristan disappears for a few hours under the pretext of gathering supplies at the local store and while he’s away an injured man arrives at the door. Paige treats his injuries and the mysterious stranger begins to settle in. Without giving too much away, it comes down to Paige having to figure out which of the two newcomers are responsible for the deaths that have arrived at their door.
I had never heard of this one prior to it being shoved down my throat on the horror movie side of TikTok. It was being touted as one of the scariest movies streaming and great British horror so I figured, what better time than now to see what it’s all about. That was a mistake. Oh well, that’s the gamble you take when you’re going back and watching the movies you missed. If this is what the Brits have to offer for horror then I’m fine without it. The entire plot was so predictable that I called the third act 10 minutes into the flick when the “killer” character stepped on to the screen. The dialogue was terrible and not in that fun “B” movie kind of way. The whole film just felt like a made for tv production littered with poor writing.
The film opens with what looked like a promising premise. It was attention grabbing and had me invested. That was until it got to the jittery slow motion action shots reminiscent of the things I used to shoot on DV tape back in the day. I will say that the opening and closing scenes (which are actually interconnected) were worth the watch but everything in between was completely unnecessary. Luckily it’s only an 80 minute runtime so not much is lost.
.5 out of 5 (If I could go lower, I would)
Join me again tomorrow and let’s see if we can find some gems among the garbage as we continue this strange little journey down the horror rabbit hole.
