Sign up to add this to your collection
|
Sign up to add this to your favorites
|
|
35%
Overall Rating
|
|
Ranked #12,197
...out of 20,698 movies
|
Sign up to check in!
|
Ten years after graduation, six high school friends celebrate their reunion by renting a secluded hunting cabin. However, the party ends abruptly as several members of the group go missing. As the night progresses, a secret is uncovered which reveals one of the most controversial and brutal twist endings in cinematic history.
--IMDb
|
|
Review by Chad
Added: March 22, 2010
Having written over a thousand reviews for this site, I sometimes find myself repeating things that I've said before. I guess that's to be expected - I mean, really, how many different ways can you say "it's a horror flick, people die, there's blood and boobs on display"? Repeating something that I said in the last review that I wrote... now that's a bit of a stretch, even for me. However, that is indeed the case, as I have much the same opinion of Reunion of Terror as I did of the linked Sorority Row: I enjoyed it, it was a fun movie, haters of eighties (throwback) slasher flicks need not apply.
The storyline is the same thing we've seen a thousand times before, and it centers around a group of five former friends - one-time prom queen Amanda (Monique Barajas), snooty rich girl Michelle (Nori Jill Phillips), white-trashy Jimmy (Christian Anderson), frat boy B.J. (Mark Carducci), and token black guy Tyrone (L.J. Green) - being brought back together after having not seen each other in years. As it turns out, a mutual friend has decided to arrange a little get-together for the group out at his cabin in the middle of the woods. Wait... a slasher? Taking place in a remote cabin out in the middle of the woods? Where have I seen this before?
Anyway, the group is eventually joined by the underage yet very "mature" hitchhiker Celia (Hallie Bird), a young lass who seems a bit odd in her own little way, and the group also comes across the local game warden (John Shumski), a creepy fellow who seems a little over-protective of these woods (and a little too interested in the ladies of the group). As the night moves along, the bodies begin to pile up and we're left wondering who is doing this, and why.
For the most part, Reunion of Terror is as formulaic as they come. It opens up with a pair of lesbians going at it in a tent out in these woods, and they eventually meet their grisly ends by way of bear trap, knife, and tent spike. This leads into the character introductions for the leading men and women, some jokes are made, the red herrings are thrown out there to leave us guessing, and then the body count starts to grow until the twist ending. We've seen all of this before, fair enough, but it's done well enough here so as to never leave the slasher fans in the audience wanting. As one of those aforementioned slasher fans, I have to say that I enjoyed the film, but I'll concede that non-fans probably won't enjoy the movie near as much as I did.
I did say "for the most part" up there, as there is one thing that sets Reunion of Terror apart from the pack: the ending. Now, I'm obviously not going to tell you who the killer is and what happens, but I will tell you that their reasoning for the killings and their subsequent revenge was shockingly well done. Going into the film and even up to the halfway point of watching it, I was expecting a silly "You picked on me in high school, now here's my revenge" sort of twist, but that wasn't the case at all. The rationale given makes sense and even prompts the viewer to feel a little sympathy for the killer, and then there's the little matter of his or her method of revenge. Somebody does survive the night, I'll tell you that much, but after what they went through, they probably wished that they hadn't. Huge thumbs up on that ending.
On the downside, the gore is severely lacking for a movie of this nature. Slasher movies have always been about the blood and the kills, and if you take that out, you're not left with much to work with. There are certainly a handful of kills to be seen and the movie is enjoyable to a certain extent regardless, but a little innovation in the killing (and maybe more on-screen action) along with a little more of the red stuff would have went a long way.
Overall, I'm going to give this one a recommendation for fans of eighties slasher flicks. It's an enjoyable movie throughout even if it is a little lacking in the gore department, and it features an ending that makes up for any shortcomings found throughout the bulk of the movie. General horror fans may want to pass on this one, but those of you who share my love for this type of movie will enjoy it - you might not love it, but you will enjoy it. 7/10.
|
|
#1:
Crispy
- added December 20, 2010 at 9:37am
I'll agree with the ending's execution, although
the sympathy angle would have been better served
without the usual slasher par of acting on
display. Still, couldn't really get into this
movie due to pacing, it just took way too long to
get going, and the final climax had been going on
for a good five or ten minutes before I even
realized it was the final climax. 4/10
|
|
Rate Movie? 
