I saw the first film in this franchise some years ago when it arrived on DVD. I wasn't thrilled but I didn't hate the film either. It felt like they were taking the horror genre Wes Craven started with THE HILLS HAVE EYES, an inbred cannibalistic mutant family, and relocating it to the back hills of West Virginia. The location change shows Hollywood's contempt for anything found in flyover country. I think they still think DELIVERANCE was a documentary and that folks outside of New York and Los Angeles are all this way.
But things progressed from there. With the quick return on investment from the first film a franchise was born and the sequels began. I had a hard time even finishing the second (and I'm not quite sure I did) and never bothered to seek out the third film. I wish the same could be said for the newest fourth film which is subtitled BLOODY BEGINNINGS.
Yes they've decided the best way to go with this one is to take us back and show us where it all started. Never fear though even with this one we could still go back a few more years and have a part 5! Lucky us!
The film opens in 1974 at a sanatorium where a new doctor is being shown around the facility. The head of the place takes her down the secluded hall where the worst patients are, including three inbred hillbillies from West Virginia. One had eaten 2 of his own fingers, another forked out his eyeball and eaten it and the last has filed his teeth into sharp points. All three suffer from a malady where they feel no pain. Of course another patient steals a hairpin from this new doctor, tosses it to the 3 brothers who then escape and let the rest of the inmates out to wreak havoc on the sanatorium and kill all in charge.
Fast forward to 2003 and the obligatory nude sex scene introduces us to two couples enjoying one another's company. They're interrupted by a friend who enters and tells them they have 5 minutes to get dressed and ready and then she's leaving. The group is heading for a weekend in the woods at a cabin their friend owns. They take cars to a designated dropping point and decide, even though a terrible winter storm is on the way, to take their snow mobiles and head out.
Of course they get lost and where to the end up? At the infamous sanatorium from the start of the film! They enter and are not surprised that the building is warm, thinking that of course someone takes care of the boiler in the place to make sure the pipes don't burst. After a series of stereotypical stupid ideas ("hey let's divide up and search the place!") they turn in for the night, sleeping (and of course having sex) in various rooms.
During the night the first victim is killed, one of the boyfriends who can't sleep and sneaking around the building comes upon the body of a friend who was separated from the group. The next morning when he can't be found they search for him only to have his girlfriend find the 3 cannibals snacking on his body.
She runs screaming for the rest of them to get out but not before another is lassoed with a piece of barb wire which after a tug of war between the cannibals and her boyfriend decapitates here. With no winter clothing they can't leave so are forced to find a way to overcome the incredibly intelligent inbreds. Well, they seem incredibly intelligent compared to the stupid things these kids do.
The movie is little more than a way to show off a body count and various gory set pieces. In the extras you discover that the movie was shot in 19 days and while the photography and technical aspects of it are pretty good, the whole set up and story makes you wonder if the money couldn't have been spent better elsewhere.
I'm not a fan of movies that have been termed torture porn. I hated HOSTEL but at the same time appreciated the SAW films. At least those had some story behind them, some mystery to solve. Fans of this sort of film are not horror fans, they are body count fans. They live and breathe to watch some new form of torture or murder occur. That's not scary and honestly becomes quite boring after a while. And truth be told that's the biggest sin with this film. It's boring.
If you're a fan of the series then by all means enjoy. If you like little more than watching the body count rise and various forms of blood gushing incidents happen then you'll like it. If you want a horror film though or something that doesn't have the dumbest group of kids around then pass it by.
I leave you with one of the stupidest thing that happens in the movie. It irked me so I have to share it with you. The group, minus a few friends who've been killed, captures the 3 inbreds and one says he's going to kill them by lighting them on fire. Another tells him not to, that it will only drag him down to their level and they're above that. Needless to say he dozes off guarding them so they escape, kill him and later on the rest of the group. Yes they all die but then again if you noticed the title this is only the beginning and had they not then it would be the end, eh?
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