The Shortcut

Plot synopsis:
In 1945 a young couple, Ivor Hartley (Daniel Maslany) and Irene (Tracy-Lynn Pugsley) are leaving the homecoming dance. The couple take a shortcut through the woods where they begin to make out. Irene wants to stop, but Ivor attempts to rape her. She manages to injure him, however, so he leaves. As Irene makes her way out of the shortcut, Benjamin Hartley attacks her, hitting her over the head with a rock and killing her.
It is revealed that Benjamin has growing health issues, and eventually begins to murder anyone he sees using the shortcut. Ivor, and the rest of Benjamin's family then hide him away from the rest of the world, by shackling him to the basement by a chain around his neck.
Present day - Derek (Andrew Seeley) has recently moved to a new town and school and has befriended the feisty Lisa (Shannon Woodward) and Mark (Dave Franco), while taking a liking to Christy (Katrina Bowden). Meanwhile, at his school, Derek's brother Tobey (Nicholas Elia) tells a few of his classmates he got kicked out of his old school for fighting. The kids then dare Tobey to go through the shortcut which he does alone. As Tobey makes his way along, he comes across a dead dog and an old man (Raymond J. Barry) who threatens him, causing him to run off.
Arriving home, Derek finds his brother Tobey covered in blood. Tobey tells Derek of the events on the shortcut, prompting Derek to go investigate, however, he has to leave to go to the fast food place where he and Mark work. When Derek tells Mark of the old man and the dog, Mark proceeds to tell Derek of the story of the old man who presumably killed people on the shortcut, yet nothing has ever been proven.
That night, Derek returns home to his Grandma's (Maxine Miller) house, whom the family have moved in with after the death of their dad. Derek's mom (Wendy Anderson) urges Derek to set a good example for Tobey. The next morning, Derek voices his annoyance of having to move to a new town again. While at school, Derek makes a move on Christy before he is approached by Taylor (Josh Emerson) who has heard about the dead dog on the shortcut. Taylor tells him his dog has gone missing and believes the old man has killed his dog. The pair makes an arrangement to go to the shortcut that night together.
After dinner, Derek asks his Grandma about the shortcut, she warns him never to go there. Derek's mom then tells him that the old man on the shortcut is the last living member of the Hartley family who she thinks "just wants to be left alone." Taylor arrives and he and Derek go to the shortcut. They come out at the old man's house and sneak into his garage where they find dog collars, but none of the collars belong to Taylor's dog. The old man appears and they flee.
The following day, the group become determined to prove the old man is killing dogs. Derek and Lisa attempt to go back to the house, however, their plan is foiled when the old man does not leave his house. Later, at work, Derek is startled to see the old man. Derek is unable to determine if he recognizes him from the night before and he leaves soon after. Christy then arrives and also spots the old man. Derek manages to get an intrigued Christy's number so she can help with the investigation. After she leaves, Derek witnesses Mark being attacked and murdered, however, it's revealed this was a prank.
The next day, at Derek's house, Mark, Lisa and Taylor have met up with Derek. Taylor tells them that a friend's dog has also gone missing and that the old man is a veteran so he spends every Friday night at the memorial hall. Derek and Christy plan to spy on the old man at the memorial hall while the others go to investigate his house. Tobey then enters and Lisa teases him before leaving.
At the memorial hall, Derek and Christy bond before they make out and then realize that the old man has arrived. Derek phones the others to go to the house. Mark, Lisa and Taylor go through the shortcut and break into the old man's house. Mark and Lisa find a room where Benjamin was presumably home-schooled. Mark and Taylor then go into the basement. Meanwhile, Christy and Derek realize the old man is leaving and they cannot get the others on the phone. Realizing they must beat the old man back to the house, they quickly begin to drive to the house. In the basement, Mark and Taylor discover an old man (William B. Davis), Benjamin, shackled to a large wheel by a chain that is padlocked around his neck. Benjamin pleads for them to help him before the old man arrives back home. Lisa, Mark and Taylor take Benjamin and depart the house, but Benjamin is still bound. As they reach the shortcut, the chain restricts him from moving further. Taylor grabs a sledgehammer to break the chain while Benjamin and Mark hold the chain tight. As Taylor swings the sledgehammer, Benjamin yanks the chain, bringing Mark's hand in line with the swing, horribly disfiguring it. As Lisa attempts to get a signal on her phone to call help, Taylor tends to Mark. Suddenly, Benjamin hits Taylor over the head with the sledgehammer, killing him. Mark attempts to crawl away, but he too is killed with the sledgehammer. Lisa runs away as Benjamin manages to break the chain.
Derek and Christy arrive at the house and find a distraught Lisa who warns them they need to leave. Just then, the old man, revealed to be Ivor, arrives and crashes into the back of Derek and Christy's car and then tries to shoot them. Derek and Christy then flee the car and head for the forest as Lisa is shot in the leg. Derek urges Christy to escape, while he helps Lisa to run. As Christy runs deeper into the forest, she becomes lost. Suddenly she is attacked by Benjamin. As Derek and Lisa run through the forest, they fall into a pit of bones. Derek manages to climb out, but is unable to help Lisa out as Ivor arrives. Lisa hides under the bones but is spotted, and as she is about to be shot, Derek knocks out Ivor, allowing Lisa to escape. Again running through the forest, the two stumble upon Benjamin who has captured Christy and has her bound by the neck with the remaining length of chain that is also still attached to his neck. Derek attempts to save her, but Benjamin breaks Christy's neck, killing her. Derek attacks Benjamin and is stabbed in the side while doing so. Derek quickly finds the sledgehammer and braces himself to hit Benjamin. Before Derek can hit Benjamin, Ivor turns up, he warns Derek not to hit Benjamin, and as Derek is about to, Ivor shoots Benjamin, while saying "he can no longer deal with having to hide Benjamin and kill anyone who happens to see him." Ivor then shoots himself, allowing Derek and Lisa to make their way out of the forest. Lisa becomes unable to walk due to her injury and Derek checks on it. As they are about to continue on, Lisa is stabbed to death by Tobey. Derek is shocked at first but then says he is disappointed in his brother for allowing this to happen again, and reveals that Tobey murdered their father. The two brothers then begin to drag Lisa's body into the forest. Derek reassures Tobey they will be able to cover up her death, possibly implying that they both will follow the same legend that Ivor and Benjamin did.

Tags: prank, murder, flashback

Review:
Movie is decent, ignore the haters.Does have some issues (didn't know Nazi Germany was still fighting in fall of '45), plot meanderings, weak points and not exactly a master thespian cast but has some good horror moments, decent banter and semi-plausible character interactions.The interesting thing about this movie is its orientation toward not showing the ultraviolence in all its dripping glory.
The most visually graphic scene is when one character has his finger broken.Personally, I am utterly sick of watching 80 minutes of CGI anatomy trying to take the place of a story.
This movie has the sense to use the cutaway (ha ha) approach to violence and I respect it.I would watch this movie 100 times over any of that Saw (post Saw 1, which I thought was pretty good) / Hostel torture voyeurism or Rob Zombie crap remake any day..
It's a B-slasher flick with a pretty good cast and a weak plot.
But as the film progresses the mood starts to change and the characters become more and more developed and the suspense starts to build.
It's very bland so I wouldn't recommend this to gore hounds.The finale, which comes a bit too soon, is very predictable but it's still a nice little twist for this low-budget slasher.
Even if it is a bit outlandish and confusing.Overall, The Shortcut has it's moments, but overall it's an average B-slasher.
However, if you do watch The Shortcut expecting a 5.0 rated film - you'll be very pleasantly surprised.The way I see it, this film is divided into three parts.
The first one is the longest and slowest, giving us the exposition and buildup which are quite good - family moves into a new place, the kids in school and their friends, the local urban legend of a place you shouldn't go to, the works!
The second part starts about an hour after the beginning, involves a pretty nice twist and is much more fast-paced, with some cat and mouse chases just like in Slasher films.
I thought the film was above average but not by far, and then the ending really got it some more points.The acting is good, especially by Shannon Woodward as Lisa.
The flashes from earlier years were also well used, and the cinematography wasn't anything special but wasn't bad.All in all, I really enjoyed this film, as I'm a sucker for good plot twists, especially towards the ending.
The acting isn't all that bad, but there is no cohesive story.The plot meanders from the 40s to 50s to present.
And then there's a decent surprise ending that is totally ruined by an incomprehensible second surprise ending 10 minutes later.It is so out of place you'll be wondering what they were thinking -- like a sequel?
Are you delusional?In all, you'll just feel let down and like you wasted 90 minutes.Too bad.it could have been good with a better script..
I didn't have very high expectations for this movie, but I was at least hoping for a few good jump scares, and maybe a few robbed hours of sleep that night.My hopes were shattered when, a minute into the movie, we see two teenagers at a homecoming dance in the fall of 1945, the boy talking about how he ships out in two weeks to fight the Nazis.
I was giggling two minutes in, and ready to turn it off at the opening credits, which blatantly rip off "Se7en's." But, against my better judgement, I stayed with the sinking ship, and wish I hadn't.Everything about the movie had been done before, and better, by others.
The plot was weak to say the least, and the ending was stupid and implausible, which robbed it of any genuine shock it had the potential to hold.
If the movie had at least had some decent character development, I might have been able to forgive it...but five minutes in, I was actually praying for the characters' deaths, and nothing changed.
The shots were bland and boring...I felt like I was watching a middle school's drama production of an adaptation of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" without Freddy.Feeling like I'd been robbed of eighty-five minutes of my life, I turned on the director's commentary to try to understand his reasoning...only to find that he had none.
His opening comments were: "Hi. If you can hear my voice right now, then that means that you're watching the DVD." Fifteen minutes in, I'd discovered that I knew more about directing a film than he did.I turned off my television and had a good cry, and I'm still trying to erase the whole experience from my mind.
Fairly average teenage slasher movie.
This movie was, well truth be told, fairly average.The storyline was pretty much like taken from a mold of how to make a teenage slasher movie, nothing new or super surprising to the story actually.
You have your newly arrived family to a town, a crazy old man in the woods, and a bunch of teenagers with their noses in places they don't belong.
And with that recipe, "The Shortcut" is set off to an otherwise alright ride.The movie moves ahead at a good pace actually, never becoming stale or boring.
There is a good turn of events throughout the movie, and some nice character build as well.
Barry in the role of the 'old man' was actually good, he did come off the screen sort of aloof, but I wouldn't say he was creepy, as the teens in the movie described him.
As for the young cast, well they did good jobs with their characters as well, but for me it was Raymond J.
Barry who carried the movie.Now, for a slasher movie, there isn't a whole lot of blood and gore, but that is alright, because the movie didn't' really need it.
I, personally, found the ending to be over the top, it just didn't seem like a wholesome way to round up the movie.
That scene was so good, and the aftermath was working out nice as well.And what was really working for "The Shortcut" was the atmosphere of the setting and scenery.
But, I will say that the old man's house was interesting, and it had a very gloomy feel to it, with some fairly interesting items to be seen here and there.As movies go, do not expect the next Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger to be born from this movie.
It is a fairly average movie, and it is one that fails to stand out in the slasher genre.
Sad to say, but you watch this movie and then it will fade into oblivion, because nothing really makes it extraordinary or standing out in any way.I found the movie to prove adequate entertainment for its one and a half hour (approximately) duration, though it is not a movie that I will be returning to for a second time around..
THE SHORTCUT pretty much has a familiar formula but what sets it apart from the other films of it type is that it has a more fleshed out storyline that develops the main characters and the villains as well, its also never really in a hurry to get to the hacking and slashing parts its actually very plot driven and not even too concerned about showcasing a bunch of gore, it even generates a decent amount of suspense and manages to establish an unsettling mood exactly when it needs to.The acting is very good, I don't know any of the cast members or I might not have seen them before and it has fairly likable characters which is something you barely see in these types of films, normally you get a bunch of teens that annoy the living hell out of you you just want to smash your DVD player in two because the killer is taking to long to kill them.Overall, out of many of the recent horror fair I've seen THE SHORTCUT probably has the lowest body count and is the least gore driven but at the same time its also one of the better horror films I've seen, it has an ending that sucks but that's normal for most better than average horror films..
After starting this movie, I found myself constantly checking to see how far into the film I was.At the 30 minute mark, the movie was still was not doing anything for me.
Yes, they give you a little bit of background (a few minutes ), and the rest is spent attempting to shape some characters - but alas, nothing interesting.
I actually started to nod off.45 minutes in - they finally have one good scene.
Then, it's back to the teeny-bopper, high school setting.Not sure how they can classify this as "horror" or even suspense, with just a handful of tense scenes.
I am not a fan of gore, and don't need blood to enjoy a movie - but I do like to be taken by surprise, or startled.
Pretty disappointing, this movie is sooooo boring and predictable.
If you are a real horror movie gore and you don't have anything else but this film to fill up your already boring evening, then maybe yes - you go ahead and see it.
Teenage horror films can be a lot of fun, but not this one.
For the reason of the good camera as well as few tense scenes, I will give this film two out of ten, but then that is pretty generous..
This movie revolves around a mysterious road that works as a shortcut in the middle of a typical US housing suburb.
The movie tries to build some suspense around the shortcut and what goes on there, and succeeds in that.
It's not a bad movie, it's even better than a lot of teen crap!
Normally, I wouldn't give a PG horror movie the time of day.
Films like Twilight are not my idea of vampire movies.
But, I just watched Tucker and Dale vs Evil and I wanted to see Katrina Bowden again.The movie was mostly disappointing through the first two acts.
Barry, who played the old man in the woods.You can find something better to watch..
The Shortcut isn't the typical B-movie slasher film you'd expect it to be.
The movie actually has a plot, a decent story to follow, and a great cast.
For decades, people had been disappearing from the woods behind Hartley Elementary and no one is sure why, but after something scared the doody out of his little brother, Derek (Drew Seeley) is going to find out what it is.
Not a bad little movie, good sub plot, good screenplay, well directed, flowed well in pace.
Not your typical slasher film, but it had it's suspense, and a very interesting twist that people really won't see coming..
After a series of strange incidents, a teen and his friends decide to investigate the supposedly-haunted shortcut through the woods that is the base of an urban legend around town, and find that someone is intent on proving the legend true.This was an enjoyable if slightly flawed effort that could've been even better.
There's some really enjoyable and creepy moments in here which get this one going rather nicely, from the first time the kids wander through the house to the big confrontation in the woods where the darkness of the surrounding sand the two different encounters with the chained-up farmer makes for a couple of enjoyable entertaining scenes that work well without betraying the incredible tame feeling throughout this.
This comes off as a lame teen-drama which isn't all too interesting and makes for a rather dull time as the family struggles and burgeoning romance aren't in the slightest bit exciting and really take away from the exploration of the easily as this tends to get glossed over easily.
A great story, interesting characters and a very twisted villain make this a surprisingly fun and enjoyable movie!7/10.
Unknowing off the ignomy of the short cut, where it is rumoured that many kids and animals have disappeared, Tobey is conned by his friends to take the route...Any decent horror film needs to have at least two of the prerequisites - atmosphere, an intriguing story, a good scare, originality and capable acting.
It reveals too much of the story backbone to create any sense of mystery, while given the standardised movie-making qualities it has nothing close to atmosphere.
Your telling me that someone actually thought this would make a good movie?
However, I can warn you and, hopefully, help you to avoid the same fate.I must be honest, this movie probably would have been almost passable schlock, if not for the ending and plot twist.
However, it deteriorated quickly, when brought to the present.The ending had no basis in logic, even within the realm of the movie, itself.It was truly a waste of time on my part, and effort on the part of the cast and crew involved..
Good movie until the end.
I did see some points in the movie that gave the character away slightly.
I'm not going to tell you exactly what happened in case you choose to watch this movie.
Other than the ending you may very well enjoy this movie.
I was looking forward to this movie and it started out quite good: An old legend, flashbacks, a possible love triangle, Seeley as a likable lead, etc.BUT...and this is a pretty big 'but'...the first 65 minutes felt like a detective movie for kids...you know, something you watch on a Sunday afternoon where some kids are spying on a creepy old man.Even though we get the psycho kid and the dead dog pretty early...that's about it.
We see the kids at school, at work and a stupid blonde that plays football like a little princess who is afraid to get dirty..(seriously, they just could have made her a cheerleader, that would have been more believable).
There was a whole lot about that girl that didn't even make sense: Why bring up that she wants to go to an Ivy League university and point out that she isn't taken seriously by the headmaster when it isn't further explained to add depth to her character?
Other than that we don't really know anything about the characters in this movie, there is no development, no emotional depth...nothing!Well okay, where was I?
From the moment you see psycho kid's brother in one of the flashbacks you know that he is the creepy old man cleaning up the mess behind his deranged little brother.
There is no suspense...you just know the whole 'plot twist' after 20 minutes.And the end, oh my god i don't even know where to start!As if to make up for all the time nothing happened, suddenly EVERYTHING happens: the kids free psycho-man and he kills them (the two boys literally within seconds!!!
I mean, maybe it was supposed to be the big finale but that's just not how you build suspense in a horror movie.
I actually thought for a while that no one was going to die because everything felt too harmless and than THIS.Well and than the END...this was next to psycho brother's 'goodbye' speech (3 minutes ago he wanted to shoot the kids and then: "i can't do this anymore...i love you") the most ridiculous part of all: Derek's little brother shows up and is a psycho, too.
When they continued the movie with Derek and Lisa walking through the woods, you knew that the new little psycho would show up and kill her for what she had said before.
And don't give me that "He wants to protect his little brother crap and he isn't really a bad guy" because he just doesn't care about the fact that the little freak just killed his friend.
This movie was disturbing...but not in a good way that horror flicks sometimes are.
This movie was disturbing...but not in a good way that horror flicks sometimes are.
You rather feel the need to complain because they screwed it up so badly in the end.I still think it's interesting that Mr.Sandler is now making Horror flicks ...maybe the next one is going to be better!
I've seen thousands of horror movies.
It's very bad to compete with movies like the Grudge series, Silence of the Lambs etc.
it's sad that there are SO few good American made movies..
It started like an old school thriller that gives the viewer pretty much the idea how it will develop and run.I expected a better start than a cheap slasher flick scene which tells you how the movie would turn out.
another cliché to spoil about is the guys perusing the garage of the slasher almost all through the movie .
I would not recommend this movie for people who have a lot of expectations from a horror flick .
Almost in every slasher movie the cellphone is used for the despairing feeling the runners hold onto .i am rating this flick 3 out of 10 .
However, to the movie's benefit (maybe) there was a twist at the end.
First of all, if you are looking for gore, this is not your movie.
There is a chase scene, but not much of one.In fact, this movie seems to try to be more of a psychological thriller.
For those hoping for a happy ending: better luck next movie.
For those wishing for gore and bloodshed: better luck next movie.
To be honest with you, you could see it coming from a mile away.All in all, if you want to kill some time this movie is great for doing that.Telling it how it is.Straight talking Tony from NZ.
The Ending was totally predictable, and i called the twist ending within 5 min ..I feel like this is what a PG horror movie would look like.
So grab you 5 year olds if u want them to see a scary movie.
now those r horror movies