Shrooms

Horrorphile

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Shrooms

February 24th 2009 07:17

If there’s a lesson to be learnt anywhere within this try-hard creep-fest it’s that you should never go into a dark forest with dodgy mates and consume psychotropic fungi. Psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) is not to be taken lightly. Seems the teenagers in Shrooms (2006) got a little more than they bargained for when they went bush to get wasted.

Shrooms, written by Pearse Elliott and directed by Paddy Breathnach, is an Irish/English/Danish co-pro, shot on location in Ireland, but uses mostly American actors. It’s stylishly helmed by Breathnach and his cinematographer Nanu Segal, but it has more producers than you shake a gnarly branch at, which is always a fine sign of trouble. It would make a decent double-feature with The Ruins (2006) though; watch out, nature bites!

Lindsay Huan as Tara

Tara (Lindsay Huan) is traveling to Ireland with two girlfriends and their respective boyfriends; bitchy Lisa (Maya Hazen) and her fuckwit boyfriend Bluto (Robert Hoffman), and ever-so-slightly feral Holly (Alice Greczyn) and her mangy boyfriend Troy (Max Kasch). Once on the green turf of Ireland they are met by Jake (Jack Huston), Tara’s Brit fling from last summer. Jake is the man about 'shroom, and he drives them into the woods so they can get in touch with their inner party animal through the recreational use of the local goldcap mushrooms, but not before an unsettling run in with two of the local forest gimps, Ernie (Don Wycherly) and Bernie (Sean McGinley)

Jack Huston as Jake

But beware the Deaths Head mushrooms warns Jake. Pity Tara wasn’t present at that moment. Later she wanders off in a sulk because Jake appears to be ignoring her. She decides to swallow a Deaths Head and the proverbial forest shit soon hits the wilderness fan. That night by the camp fire, while Tara tries to sleep off the side-effects (miraculously she didn’t get too ill), Jake spins the yarn about the abandoned juvenile hall nearby and the Lonely Twin and his Black Brother and all the nasty carnage that went down. Apparently their apparitions still lurk and menace those foolish enough to be wandering around the woods searching for tasty fungi. Sounds like excellent psychological prepping for the next days’ planned ‘shroom trip.

Maya Hazen as Lisa

Shrooms is not an entirely bad trip. The production values are solid, the performances are okay, and there are some genuinely creepy sequences involving the supernatural presence of Black Brother (Toby Sedgwick) and his demonic Dog (André Pollack), along with glimpses of freaky Mysterious Women, all hidden between the spiky branches of the trees and down amongst the rank weeds of the swamp. But overall the movie should’ve been a damn sight scarier and more visceral too. The serious malevolence hinted at early on in the movie never really materializes.

Toby (Max Kasch) and Holly (Alice Greczyn) hear a bump in the night

Shrooms is like Ringu (1998) meets The Blair Witch Project (1999) meets Ju-on: The Grudge (2003) meets Wrong Turn (2003), except not as good as any of those, although it does try, I’ll give it that. Perhaps the filmmakers needed a stronger dose of ‘shroom tea before they embarked? Perhaps not. One should always take ‘shrooms in small doses, it really can screw with your psyche, not to mention make you feel really, really unwell.

Bluto (Robert Hoffman) comes a cropper

The main problem with Shrooms is the screenplay. The characters all do stupid things, for no reason than to forward the movie’s narrative. Damn I hate that shit. They’re supposed to be friends, yet on the first night, Troy verbally attacks Bluto for something utterly trivial, and wham! Bluto socks Troy. Then Lisa abuses Holly, and Holly throws insults back. It’s all annoying, silly behaviour that smacks of bad writing. Not to mention one half of the group deciding to take the ‘shrooms before the others, and then they all begin to wander off and the next thing you know they’re separated and paranoid. Well, that was a well-planned trip! Surely the Y-Gen aren't as stupid as this movie makes out?

Toby Sedgwick as Black Brother

The funny thing is the twist in this forest tale is curiously satisfying. I actually didn’t see it coming. But it’s a cop-out too, and far-fetched indeed. I’m contradicting myself I know. But my see-saw opinion only reflects the inconsistencies of the characters, so it all fits okay. Like a bad dream; an hallucinogenic-phantasmogoric al-nightmare-piece-of-fungi-d eaths-head-craziness …

Now that's gotta fucking hurt

... Or maybe I’m just having a psychotropic flashback …??

Now, that’d be scary!

Seeing is believing ... isn't it?

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

14 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Jason King

February 24th 2009 07:23

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I want some!!!

Is this out on DVD - it actually sounds like I would enjoy it. Kind of same thing as Ruins? Teenagers, death and forest/ jungle?

Cool review and pics. The eye is cool.

Bring on Deaths Heads!!!

Comment by Bryn

February 24th 2009 07:30

Horrorphile

Jason, let's have the next Orble drinks in a forest where we all drink 'shroom tea! That'd be interesting conversation.
Yeah, this is about as good as The Ruins. Not bad, but not amazing either.

Comment by Damo

February 24th 2009 10:26

The film looks like a cool trip of weirdness.
I just keep thinking bout the Acid Queen from Tommy.

I remember a work mate telling me that he shroomed every year. then one day between seasons he had a flashback for no reason and tripped all over again.

Comment by Jason King

February 24th 2009 11:04

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Cool - I kind of liked the Ruins - I enjoyed it at the time so will give it a shot and HELL YEAH to Orble Shroom Tea.

Is there an upcoming Orble "do" planned?

Comment by Bryn

February 24th 2009 21:49

Horrorphile

Jason, after the pitiful turn out for Sydney Xmas Orble drinks - Jon and I were the only ones! - not sure really. It seems painfully obvious that most Sydney Orblers would prefer to not be seen in person. Pathetic really. No doubt Jon and I will catch up for a beer or three some time in the near future, but as for trying to get others to join us, well, I think we've pretty much given up on that.

Comment by Jason King

February 26th 2009 20:31

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Boo - that sux - next time I will come and meet up if not working one of my 6 days a week.

I obtained a copy of Shrooms last night and absolutely loved it. Sure it was borderline B grade but it was fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Actually preferred it to The Ruins.

On a further note - I watched The Unborn last night and I have to write a review in the next day or two. It is honestly the worst film released since The Happening and I nearly walked out twice. I also said "are you fu$#ing kidding twice". Apalling - seriously wait until it gets a local TV commercial release. It is not even worth it on DVD.

You were so right - the trailer was too good to be true. Gary Oldman must be kicking himself or in some bad financial trouble to be in such emberassing a film.

Comment by Bryn

February 27th 2009 00:17

Horrorphile

Jason, check my review of The Unborn ...
I actually find it intriguing that you liked Shrooms so much yet bagged out The Unborn so much. They both had characters doing stupid things and major inconsistencies. But both sported some great nightmarish imagery.

Comment by Jason King

March 1st 2009 21:00

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Bryn,
I finally read your Unborn review and wrote mine - I linked it on your review. I actually liked this much better. I watched it straight after watching The Unborn to see which one I would prefer and compared to The Unborn this one was amazing.
This one actually had a pretty decent plot. This one can also use the excuse that any inconsistencies can be explained because they are all off their heads on shrooms. We were seeing what they thought they were seeing.
I also loved the Blair Witch/ inbred location and the idea of the camp fire story intertwining in the trip was quite clever. And I totally dug the reveal at the end. While it stole the Orphanage's head bag idea the rest gave some good stuff to watch.
It's no award winner but I had fun and it took my mind off my two hours wasted on The Unborn.

Comment by Bryn

March 1st 2009 21:52

Horrorphile

Jason,
The drug-addled hallucinations wasn't where I had an axe to grind, it was before they took the 'shrooms. They're meant to be friends yet they're all at each others' throats within hours; one guy punching the other guy because he thought the guy was sneaking around the tent. Huh?! Then the two girls are throwing nasty pointless insults at each other. And then after all that careful in unison planning two of them decide to take the 'shrooms before the others, while one of them is already missing. I just didn't believe any of it.

Comment by Bryn

March 1st 2009 21:55

Horrorphile

Hey, Jason, I'm curious if the text for this review cut off on your computer? It's not on mine, but I'm not using a widescreen youtube clip, just a standard one.

Comment by Jason King

March 2nd 2009 06:35

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Bryn,
The fighting we can blame on a steroid addled nutjob pissing people off. I have had similar fights between best friends on holidays (or seen it anyway) - it's kind of like trying to establish who has the biggest schlong. The girls bitching was not needed but it was fun none the less, they should have been hating the guy for trying to jump them both but bitching with each other was more fun. I also don't think the girl with a forrest under her arm pits actually knew the others as much - wasn't she just the "girlfriend"?
As for taking the shrooms early - all my friends used to pig into the stash well before they should have and then deny ever touching it. OMG - I think I am saying too much - I am an honest christian boy

And NO - I get all the text on this one - none missing. YAY

Comment by Bryn

March 2nd 2009 23:15

Horrorphile

Jason, I'm not sold sorry.
I just wasn't convinced by any of their connection(s) or behaviour. Or perhaps I just had a problem with the characters. They were all fuckwits, and I really didn't care who bit the deaths head off and who didn't.

So, the widescreen youtube clips must be fucking with my margins. So how come only my blog???

Comment by Jason King

March 3rd 2009 06:47

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It could have something to do with your site settings. I have mine set to "wide (with ads in text)" - I htink that is what is called - maybe yours is set to standard and when you put "wide" clips in it freaks out.