A family’s vacation to a remote getaway takes an unexpected turn when they discover the island they’re on is inhabited by a serial killer.
The regular milieu of Shudder projects runs a wide gamut, honoring not only the various subgenres but also the different cultures, budgets, and intuitions of horrifying audiences. Some of the more buzzy festival movies barely hit when they land on Shudder despite the service’s best efforts to really grow. While plenty have made their mark, this movie, “Get Away,” puts itself a league above some of Shudder’s buzziest titles with deft filmmaking and a vicious finale designed to make you laugh.
Nick Frost wrote and stars in this classic family vacation horror gone amok. When a young family arrives on the island of Svalta, they encounter a resistant band of villagers who are lost in time and ailing from a dying population. The innkeeper renting his family’s home out harbors dark secrets of his own, and even as this English family attempts to quell their family strife, figures stalk them from the margins. The movie leans heavily on folk horror classics such as “The Wicker Man” and “Midsommar.” Knowing this isolated island probably harbors villagers hellbent on sacrificing this innocent family only elevates this movie’s comedic tone.
Frost is no stranger to comedy, and his director, Steffen Haars, uses all four prime cast members deftly. Obviously, Frost anchors the movie with a fuddy-duddy approach to being the constantly put-upon patriarch of a modern family. Aisling Bea matches his energy with gusto, creating the two most cloyingly sweet couple. Maisie Ayres adds to the group with a quiet curiousness, the teenage girl we expect to outlast her other family members. Like all great vacationing families, there’s always one complainer, this time, in the form of Sebastian Croft, whose flippancy never lets up. Together, the four make up a classic nuclear family seemingly menaced by the ill-begotten vacation. It’s worth mentioning that not only do the prime cast members work perfectly in tandem, but in contrast to them, Eero Milonoff positively oozes menace with a sort of uncanny valley pretense at hospitality. It’s the sort of thing that comes across as part leery and part mistranslated confusion.
The gorgeous green woods and cerulean seas surrounding this mystic isle make for a great backdrop. Log cabins surrounded by pine trees paint the picture of a mass murder taking place, albeit not what you’d think. Instead of a by-the-books vacation horror flick, the movie takes a wicked turn in the third act, so brace yourself for plenty of gore, blood, knife stunts, and punchlines. Frost clearly employs his penchant for dark humor in the writing of this script, and Haars makes mincemeat of all the bits and additives that really sell the comedy. It doesn’t aim for some higher level of meaning but cuts right to the center and indulges in some good ol’ fashioned bloodletting. Perhaps more savvy audiences will see it coming, but that final twist felt exciting for me, and the needle drop earned all my energy and excitement.
“Get Away” stands above the Shudder crowd primarily in its execution. Shot on location in Finland (apparently, the movie was too violent to shoot in Sweden, as they’d hoped) brings the whole film up to another level. Frost’s comic timing helps drive jokes home, but he is not the only draw. “Get Away” gets to have its cake and eat it too by virtue of simply enjoying itself and its premise. Audiences should check this out for a fun reprieve from the atmospheric horror experimental projects out there and dive in for a good time!
In Theaters Friday, January 10th
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