The elements that go into creating a compelling horror story involving children and monsters have been explored and defined for years. Unfortunately, the creators of Shortcut decided to bypass most of them. What we are left with is a story that isn’t compelling, scary or interesting. The film, directed by Alessio Liguori and written by Daniele Cosci, has all of the right ingredients to concoct a familiar, but suitable, scary movie. But if it comes between watching paint dry and sitting through this film again, well, bring on the paint.
Veterans of horror will undoubtedly pick up on the heavy amount of influences at work here. The most obvious one would be Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003). That film also had young teenagers trapped on a bus as a humanoid creature with fangs and claws stalks them. Granted, that film wasn’t ground-breaking in its own right (and uncomfortable to mention for other reasons), but it at least produced scares and chills. Shortcut has none of those things. In fairness, the monster looks cool enough, but is vastly under developed and barely used. The characters involved were all carbon copy archetypes we’ve seen so many times before. Leaning on these tropes instead of truly fleshing out who they are, the film begs me to ask: Why should I care what happens to any of them?
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There is the hero main character Nolan (Jack Kane), the artistic beauty Bess (Sophie Jane Oliver), the heavy-set barrel of melodrama Karl (Zander Emlano), the brace-faced know-it-all Queenie (Molly Dew) and the pierced bad-boy Reggie (Zak Sutcliffe) who brandishes a zippo lighter for a pseudo Chekhov’s Gun. These characters are written this way for two reasons: 1. So the audience can identify with one of them, and 2. so we can tell them apart. But their characters are delivered with haste; the writing serves more to address their archetype than who they could be.
The diet Breakfast Club is on a bus traveling somewhere in the country. No real context is given as to who these kids are and where they are going. Their bus driver Joseph (Terence Anderson) stops to move a deer carcass out of the road. He returns with a gun-wielding madman (David Keyes) who takes the bus hostage, waving his weapon around and taunting the group. To what end this plot point serves, I couldn’t tell you. It feels like fluff. I would have rather had the runtime used for the people the film wants me to find important. The gang ride on until they reach a tunnel where the bus inexplicably breaks down. When Joseph is forced to investigate the issue, he is soon attacked by our monster. Before long, the madman also falls prey to the creature’s clutches. The five kids and their resolve to stay alive are what stands to fight the monster back.
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I won’t reveal the third act or the ending, but I also feel like I don’t need to. The problem with relying too much on your influences is the inevitable telegraphing your story will produce. This film is predictable and slow. At a runtime of 80 minutes, Shortcut still seemed to drag at times when it should’ve been ramping up speed. This attribution lies heavy on the kids and not the monster. We spend a lot of time with them, but they don’t do a whole lot in that time. There are occasional lines of dialogue that are absolute dreck in between the quiet spaces.
“Sorry, I’ve got terrible sense of direction.”
“At least you’re good at drawing.”
“You think?”
There is even a sex joke that is made midstream, not long after witnessing the death of two people and facing a creature made from nightmares. I guess teenagers will be teenagers no matter the circumstances. The chemistry from other teen ensembles such as It and Stranger Things screams elemental and organic. I will not be sharing that accolade here. I wanted more from this film. More fun, more scares, more monster. Instead I found myself looking at my watch, hoping for a shortcut to the end credits.
Shortcut will be available on DVD and Digital Download from March 29th.
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