A group of friends heads to a cabin in the middle of nowhere for a weekend of drinking and fun, only to pursued by a murderous beast. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Sure, this is the set-up to more horror films than we could begin to count, but when it’s done right, this trope is a perfect formula for frightening fun. Such is the case with Brad Douglas’ new film, Between the Trees, which takes a classic set-up and adds some very interesting story elements that push it from forgettable to fresh.
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Between the Trees is the story of four friends, Steve (Greg James), Josh (Michael Draper), Mack (Jonny Lee), and Dave (Dan Kyle), who head to a cabin in the middle of a forested mountain for a weekend filled with hunting and lots and lots of booze. We get some very archetypal characters in the form of Mack, the horny single player, Josh, the twerpy nerd, and our main guy Steve, an every-man who’s having some serious troubles with his marriage. When the friends awake one morning to find their car tampered with, they set out to find who did it and, in the process, make the big mistake of shooting a backwoods boy. Now the boy’s backwoods mutant daddy is mad and out to kill the friends. You may think you know where the story goes from here, but Between the Trees takes some very interesting story turns at this point and totally defies viewers’ expectations.
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The film is very nicely shot, acted, and edited. There is some great use of drone shots and, aside from some obvious day-for-night sequences, the camera-work and editing is very slick. The character building is handled fairly well too, though therein lies some of my minor issues with the film. There are a few points where the efforts to add comedy relief with the Josh character interfere with the tension building of the horror. At times, the film feels a bit lost in terms of tone. With that being said, the Josh character is quite funny and one of the most realized and interesting characters in the movie, so his occasional hamming is forgivable.
Between the Trees is a fun horror film that succeeds for having some really interesting plot twists and a blending of genre elements. Fans of Cabin in the Woods-type horror should definitely check this one out, if not for the refreshing twist on the set-up, than for the freaky looking backwoods mutant guys.
Between the Trees hits On Demand and Digital HD from Uncork’d Entertainment on March 5th and DVD on June 11th.
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