An almost satisfactory addition to the lost-in-the-woods slasher genre with a surprising twist.
Here's the Youtube trailer.
2021's A CLASSIC HORROR STORY is an Italian-American slasher film brought to global audiences by Netflix. The film follows a group of road-trippers in Souther Italy who get trapped in the woods with masked psychos. It's a pretty standard template for horror films-- college students in an RV driving through the country, one or two romantic couples, a nerd, an angry guy, a wise guy, and a "good-girl" virgin-esque type character.
Unfortunately the characters aren't super fleshed out and they all pretty-much inhabit horror stereotypes -- except for the old guy. I kept wondering how the hell he ended up in an RV full of college kids driving through the country. There's an angry British redhead guy that I couldn't find good screenshots of but he's not super important. Not to spoil anything but I thought it was funny that there's two girls in the movie--a blonde in short shots and a brunette in a long dress--who both felt like cardboard stand-ins for the dichotomy of women in most films, especially horror -- the harlot and the virgin. That last trope gets turned on its head because halfway through the movie you learn the brunette's actually pregnant and wants to abort her unwanted baby. There was really an opportunity to address her character and their initial and concluding motivations but that never happens.
The whole "cabin-in-the-woods" and "masked hill people" tropes are interesting because of what they represent. Why are the enemies of a bunch of academic school kids and an old man who is supposedly a "doctor," violent country people who live deep in the woods? School's a lot about pedigree and theory, so it makes sense that its opposite would be considered bad -- wildness and practicality. Could a country person survive in the academic urban world? The consensus pressed on audiences again and again, is that it would be difficult. Just as it is near impossible for city-folk to suddenly survive out in the wilderness. The cabin in the woods represents someone who survives in the chaos of nature, while the masked hill people is a way of dehumanizing people who do not live strictly along the constraints of civilized or standardly-governed society.
The movie was well-shot, good angles, great color, and I could tell it was slightly expensive, something of an attempt in the vain of the popular horror movie "Midsommar," the popular "Saw" franchise, or something similar.
I also thought there wasn't enough people in this movie-- there's the British redhead guy, his Italian blonde girlfriend, her virgin-esque brunette friend, their nerdy movie-geek school friend, and some random middle-aged doctor who was thrown into the movie for God knows what reason. You'd think with so little characters that I could be moved to care about them more but the ensuing events just felt rather mechanical.
One of my initial thoughts were -- "here goes another expensive attempt at something MONUMENTALLY original."
Like this little girl wandering the grave yard of the masked psychos' previous victims, all I could think was: "Obviously this has happened before many times."
While not entirely awful, I only found the ending mildly interesting but I can't say what happens for fear of spoiling it.
Final Grade?
If you're interested in more reviews, here's a list of other movies I've written about:
Movie Review for 2020's "The Night House"
Movie Review for 2021's "Hellbender"
Movie Review for 2022's "Chainsaw Massacre"
Movie Review for 2014's "Mama"
Movie Review for 2021's "Cursed"
Movie Review for 2021's "Master"
Movie Review for 2022's "The Batman"
Movie Review for 2021's "Stillwater"
Movie Review for 2021's "Blue Bayou"
Movie Review for 1997's "Conspiracy Theory"