Director: David Ryan Keith
Writer: David Ryan Keith (Screenplay) David Ryan Keith (Story)
Starring: Mark Wood, Lisa Cameron, Lisa Livingstone, Rebecca Wilkie, Adam Coutts, Lee Hutcheon, Benjamin Selway, Alec Westwood
Plot: For five adventurous friends, visiting the legendary murder site of the Redwood House has all the hallmarks of being an exciting camping weekend away. Until the innocent campers discover the Redwood legend is a horrible bloody reality.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: The British Hatchet
Story: The Redwood Massacre starts with a bloody and stabbed woman walking for a pitch black forest being stalked by a sack wearing serial killer who ruthlessly finishes her off. Daylight brings us our main characters Kirsty (Livingstone) who gets dragged on a camping trip by her boyfriend Mark (Coutts) and his ex-girlfriend Jessica (Wilkie) and friends Pamela (Cameron) and Bruce (Wood).
We learn that 20 years ago there was a series of murders in Redwood and as we know the teenagers want to use this to celebrate and party hard. We see that the serial killer is back and is happy to take out as many people as he wants with his trademark axe. When Bruce never turns up the remaining four go about to finally tell us about what happened with the Redwood Massacre and the real story. The real story involved the killer still being out there hell bent on killing anybody who comes near his family’s resting places.
The group finds out the killer is still alive when Jessica and Mark can’t be found after the first night leaving Pamela and Kirsty having to search the forest for help with no idea where they are to be going. Who will survive the wrath of the seemingly unstoppable killer?
The Redwood Massacre is a very bloody slasher, it continues the attempts to bring the slasher genre into the new blood hungry audience we have in the world today, much like how Adam Green did with Hatchet. I won’t lie but I did find the first third of the film have a very slow feel to it all even though it seemed like everything went very fast with the first killings happening early on so we don’t get to really meet most of the five friends. Once the next third starts I started to enjoy how the first third went because it narrowed down the characters giving us just two trying to find their friends while not knowing what was going on. The film does end up going into a cat and mouse between the lone survivor and the killer which works really well because we get a potential new icon of horror fighting against a new potential kick ass horror queen. You can see a lot of elements used from other slasher films without just copying them. I will say there is a lot of over kill but that does add to how brutal the killer really is. This will go down as a good addition to the slasher genre. (7/10)
Actor Review
Mark Wood: Bruce is the lone traveler who becomes the first friend to go missing when his bike is tripped by the killer. Mark does a solid job but doesn’t really get enough screen time. (5/10)
Lisa Cameron: Pamela is the friend who bought Bruce along hoping for a romantic angle, she ends up getting stuck with her best friends ex’s new girlfriend as we see the personality clash while remaining calm through the situation even after getting constantly insulted by Kirsty. Lisa does a good job by looking like the average woman put into a world that could happen to everyone. (7/10)
Lisa Livingstone: Kirsty is Mark’s new girlfriend who clearly never goes camping because she over packs, she constantly insults the rest of the group while complaining about the condition she finds herself in. Lisa gives the star performance here because you truly believe she doesn’t want to be there and dislikes the rest of the characters making her the good character you don’t really cheer for. (7/10)
Rebecca Wilkie: Jessica is the ex-girlfriend of Mark who is on the trip for the wild party she has instant tension with Kirsty before going missing and becoming a victim of the killer. Rebecca doesn’t get much screen time to make an impact. (4/10)
Adam Coutts: Mark is taking his new girlfriend to meet his old girlfriend for a camping trip, sounds like a good idea right? He is one of the first taken by the killer along with Jessica. Adam does a solid enough job in the role as one of the victims. (5/10)
Support Cast: The Redwood Massacre supporting cast includes the sack masked killer who brutally kills all his victims, the rest of the support cast add small scenes where they become the victims of the killer.
Director Review: David Ryan Keith – David writes and directs a new breed of slasher that is what we need to see in the cinema world now. (8/10)
Horror: The Redwood Massacre is bloody, gory and pretty much a perfect modern day slasher film. (9/10)
Settings: The Redwood Massacre puts our victims in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to run from a killer they can’t stop. (9/10)
Special Effects: The Redwood Massacre uses the low budget to create great effects with the kills. (9/10)
Suggestion: The Redwood Massacre is one for all the slasher horror fans to enjoy, you will also enjoy if you like a good bloody horror film. (Horror Fans Watch)
Best Part: A Brutal new serial killer is born.
Worst Part: I felt it started slow and jumped to quickly into the action.
Kill Of The Film: The final one, don’t want to spoil the effect of it.
Believability: No (0/10)
Chances of Tears: No (0/10)
Chances of Sequel: You never know with horror films.
Post Credits Scene: No
Similar Too: Hatchet
Awards: Won Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Writer and Best Screenplay at Chicago Horror Film Festival
Oscar Chances: No
Budget: £50,000
Runtime: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
Released 7th July 2015
Overall: Modern Slasher Bloody, Gory simply put The British Hatchet.
Rating
