Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Reeker / USA / 2005

Five collegians run out of gas on a deserted California highway and decide to hole up in a run-down motel and wait out the night. Unfortunately, an unseen menace with a penchant for dismemberment has other plans. With a persistent aura of evil in the air (and an inescapable stench of death in the nostrils), the film rolls briskly along, with one cast member after another meeting his or her grisly fate, while intriguing reveals hint at a more complex narrative than a simple madman on the loose.

Although the story does not turn out to be anything truly unexpected (the tidy closing scenes helpfully explain any mid-movie confusion), its inclusion of a variety of possibilities makes for enjoyable moments of guesswork. At the same time, its admirable handling of slasher tropes, and its devotion to building, and maintaining, suspense, keeps us appreciably intrigued. The source of evil, for example, is kept carefully hidden for the bulk of the picture, allowing both the audience and the cast to grope about in the darkness of terrifying options. And the characters themselves, while ably handling the expected “who’s there?” moments, and falling in love at the drop of a hat, manage to be more than mindless fodder, and at times morph into respectable protagonists capable of eliciting laughs and sympathy.

The problem I’ve had with so many recent horror films is that unrelenting gore and unpleasant circumstances have largely taken the place of good, old-fashioned tension centered on the fear of the unknown. Torture, no matter how repulsive, simply cannot invoke the same feelings of dread-laced excitement as a half-dressed woman slowly opening an outhouse door with nothing but a flashlight to protect her. Sure, you know something is going to jump out, just as you know the car isn’t going to start, the phone’s not going to work, and the blind guy’s enhanced sense of smell is going to come in handy. But when you settle in for slasher-style entertainment, that’s what you want, what you expect, and with Reeker, that’s what you get.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: FearNet Ondemand
02 Feb 2008 9:53 PM | Submit Comment