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39%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #10,577
...out of 20,725 movies
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Six friends enter the strange town of Old Mines for a weekend float trip. They quickly realize that the town is not friendly to strangers, and they are pressured to leave by the police. When the friends decide to continue their float trip anyway, terrifying secrets of the town surface. A seven-foot-tall deformed maniac, known by the townsfolk as The Boy is kept under lock and key by the town's mayor. The Boy's purpose is simple: kill outsiders. The Mayor of Old Mines releases The Boy and the maniac's hunt begins. One by one, the campers on their float trip are ripped to gory shreds by the enraged, deformed, hulking Boy. But there is great mystery to the Boy. Who is his father? Who is his mother? How did he become so dangerous? In the end, the answers to these questions will put the entire town of Old Mines in danger. The Boy is an unstoppable killing machine, and anyone in his path won't be in one piece for long!
--IMDb
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Review by Tristan
Added: May 16, 2008
A few years ago the "backwoods horror" was making a large impact both in theatres and on DVD. Wrong Turn, The Hills Have Eyes remake and several others were both shocking audiences while reviving the survival horror films so prevalent in the 1970's. These were the big names, but I'm sure there were countless of other films that slid under the radar that still deserved their recognition. The Undertow is one of these movies. It was made on a small budget from the boys at the now defunct Sub Rosa Extreme - most of these faces moved over to Wicked Pixel - and turned out to be a surprisingly good little horror flick.
A group of 6 friends led by Eli (Jason Christ), head out into a small town known as Old Mines for a canoe trip. Only problem is, Old Mines is one of "those" towns. They don't like strangers coming in disrupting the townsfolk. Along the way they run into all kinds of problems, starting off with the town's police deputy Foxy Watson (Joseph Palermo) and continuing with the local convenience store and people wandering through the woods. Some try to scare them away, while others warn them of the town's dark secret. Legend has it that any outsiders who come to the town are disposed of by "the boy". Nobody knows what he looks like or where he comes from, all they know is that he was raised to be a killer. The group of friends obviously laughs this off as a ridiculous town joke, and continue on with their plans. It's during their first night that they realize the story of the boy is real, and one of their friends is brutally murdered. It quickly becomes a fight to survive for the little group as they try to escape from the small town, all the while being stalked by this vicious killer.
If I said I didn't have low expectations for this one, I'd be lying. The DVD packaging was mediocre, the company that put it out is no longer running, and the writer/director's past effort was the fantastically titled Christmas Season Massacre. I'm happy to say however, that this movie really worked. If I rounded up a few friends, churned out a script, and scraped together just enough money for some semi-realistic special effects, I figure I'd make something along the lines of this movie. It's a generic style of horror movie that is usually cheesy and awful but luckily The Undertow pulled it off nicely. The characters were believable and weren't written as the typical cast of a horror film. You come to expect the one black guy, the bimbo, the nerd, the tough guy, and then the guy/girl who knows all the right moves.
Jason Christ, whose contributions to the Severed Head Network were among the best of the bunch, was great as the leader of the gang Eli. He's already done a great job writing and directing, but who knew he had some acting chops as well. While it's great to see him in front of the camera, personally I'd prefer to see him behind it, making some more of the films I enjoyed so much in Severed Head Network. Other than the deputy character, Foxy Watson, nobody else had a very memorable role. Most of them were just fodder for the killer, and I guess that was for the best, as none of them were particularly good actors.
While I enjoyed this movie, it was far from perfect. Many of the scenes dragged on way too long, and could have been shortened up by several minutes. More than once I found myself getting bored at the droning dialogue and poor acting. Then a kill would roll around, and last maybe 20 seconds. Not the best ratio, but I can understand the director's attempt to put a little more story and dialogue into the movie, rather than death scene after death scene. Another big problem was the lighting and sound. Again, I know it was low budget, but a lot of the nighttime scenes were fuzzy and hard to make out, and any time someone spoke a little louder than usual, the audio would come out with a buzzing echo effect that you might hear on a cheap headset.
It wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Aside from some editing issues, a few scenes that need a trimming and some poor acting, it was a very enjoyable movie. If you're a fan of b-movie horror movies, you will definitely get a kick out of it. Since the company no longer exists, I don't know how you'd go about getting a copy, but I'm sure there are still some floating around out there.
6/10.
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