Intense, Twisted Horror at its Bloodiest

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2006)

I saw this movie today, the day it opened around here, and I *really* liked it.
What a wonderful kind of its genre (horror). It was bloody, edgy, intense, fast-paced, dramatic ... with a near-perfect beginning and end embracing a wonderfully terrifying story.
How to compare this movie? It's very bloody, in the spirit of slasher movies beginning with the semi-legendary Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It has some of the intensely personalist flavor (ugh) of High Tension.
In the tradition of American scary movies, there's sexuality mixed, in varying measure, with the fear. The sexuality is quite strong even for an R-rated horror movie. Such can certainly be titillating in scary movies; however, I myself didn't find it so in this one ... at least not after the first few scenes. In the early part of the movie especially, the general sense of Something's Not Quite Right was so pervasive, and so artfully mingled into the scenes, that I doubt if anyone will get "turned on" by those scenes ... but expect that Something's Not Quite Right sense to coax you to the edge of your seat until the Not Quite Right hits you (and all of us in the audience) in the face.
The real value of the early scenes is exactly that they follow admirably a pattern that is very familiar to horror movies fans: some likable folks (3 kids) are invited to Something That Sounds Too Good to be True.
Next of course the kids experience Something of the Good. And then all hell breaks loose as they discover that it is indeed Too Good to be True.
Part of the horror comes in contrasting the Dreamed of Good, the Taste of Bliss, with the actual Nightmarish Horror.
There are some amazing scenes full of that intense irony that you only find in a well-made horror flick. I won't spoil them by talking about them ... except to say that these are the sorts of scenes that simply leave me wrinkling my brow and whispering "Oh, NO ... oh, sh** ... !" If you, like me, like this kind of scene, then hey, you'll have plenty of opportunity to experience more than a few such in this movie.
The entire movie is set near Bratislava, Slovakia, and there are some lovely views, beautiful scenes, mostly of what Americans (like me) would think of as a quiet, almost idyllic, sometimes pastorally peaceful setting. Which produces all the more contrast to the horror of the film.
The pace was good, the action was quick, the dialog and script were both economical and very credible.
Tight, taut, scary, horrifying ... if that's your scary movie taste, hey, check this movie out.