THE COTTAGE
DATE RELEASED: March 14, 2008 (U.K.), April 29, 2008 (direct-to-DVD U.S.)
DATE ACTUALLY WATCHED: October 22, 2011
WHY NOW? Keeping with this month’s theme of Forgotten Frights, I asked readers for their recommendations. Although I’m not so into comedy-horrors, this one seemed to take horror seriously enough, embracing gore and the gritty, desolate setting.
WHY NOT THEN? Besides being a “forgotten” horror, it’s also a Brit movie, sending it even further off my radar. On top of that, it wasn’t even released in theatres in North America, instead going straight to DVD.
EXPECTATIONS:
- A lot of blunt gore.
- Not too much of a story.
- Intense chase scenes.
- Andy Serkis proving that he is a worthwhile actor beyond CGI-ed characters.
- Not laugh-out-loud funny, but snicker funny.
- The perfect horror setting, a cottage lost deep in the thick woods, with creaky floorboards, cobwebbed corners and dusty surfaces.
- A lot of blunt gore, bordering on too much, but not quite.
- More of a story than I expected. Actually, a complex two-part story that never delves too far but provides enough not to leave any major gaps. But along the way, far too many “what’s going on now?!” moments.
- Only two chase scenes really. So don’t trust the trailer, which gives you the assumption that there will be so many more.
- I'm still on the fence about Andy Serkis. When he's not CGI-ed, he’s unlikable, like in this film where he’s the mastermind behind the kidnapping of a woman. But there’s still hope that he’ll one day have the opportunity to show as a non-CGIed character the emotional range he showed as Caesar in The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Or the creepy darkness of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.
- More snickers than I thought. Contagious snickers I should add.
- A seemingly Wrong Turn-inspired setting and villain. Not original enough, but the film has enough originality otherwise to make up for it.
Although I won’t be seeing this one again, it’s opened me up to seeing more comedy-horrors, knowing that they actually have the potential to be both scary and funny, despite being a very cheesy sell.