Don Wallace enrols in a boarding school named Slaughterhouse and it becomes a battleground when mysterious things happen. He is not your typical student for a boarding school and that comes with many issues as he starts.
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I didn't really have a lot of background knowledge of this film before watching it in all honesty, which was a bit of a shame as I found it rather enjoyable and a little bit different with an impressive cast. I was therefore surprised that it wasn't very well received and has low ratings/reviews across most sites.
Don Wallace struggling with the death of his father and then being sent to boarding school by his mother to increase his chances in life. He doesn't fit in as he is not a generation boarding school kid, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather etc. His roommate Willoughby Blake is struggling with the suicide of his former roommate and as it turns out they were in love with each other. So everything is all over the place for Don starting and he does not want to conform to the rules put in place by the upper 6th formers.
When the students are banned from entering the woods it is clear that something rather sinister is going on and to viewers we get to see different events happening and people from the school being involved in this. The strange green light, especially turning flames green should have been the first major factor to something not being right at all.
Then one night it will all come crashing down as strange creatures are released from the sinkhole. They really do look horrendous and attack as many of the students as possible. Don teams up with Willoughby, Clemsie, Kay and two younger students. They battle to survive and must try and rescue Smudger, who is the brother of Clemsie and at a very strange induction orgy. That was certainly something I was not expecting in the film and did make it turn in not a very good way in all honesty.
Other than that odd scene I did enjoy the rest of the film and found that the creatures were creepy enough and the chase scenes entertaining. Especially the use of the Skoda car adding to comedy value, along with other moments which I felt captured British humour very nicely.
Finn Cole was impressive in the leading role and I felt he carried the film very well. Considering he is relatively unknown! Simon Pegg and Michael Sheen both adding in good comedic moments to help the balance of the film and the fact they are rather big names. Asa Butterfield is an actor I have enjoyed watching a lot of recently and he is often given that awkward teen role but it is something he does very well. Margot Robbie's role was luckily limited to a couple of scenes via a computer screen. Nick Frost always given a small yet crazy part and let's face it he never disappoints with that.
It makes me sad in a way that not many people will watch this film as I felt it had good entertainment value and that is something that we need more of, especially supporting smaller British films. Oh I almost forgot to mention that they made the boarding school and many scenes have a very Harry Potter feel to it and that can only be a positive thing as it created another level of humour!
