Wreckage (2010)
Distributor: Chelsea Films
DVD Release Date (UK): 22 August 2011
Directed by: John Mallory Asher
Starring: Mike Erwin, Aaron Paul, Scoot McNairy, Cameron Richardson, Kelly Kruger
Review by: Stephanie Scaife
Directed by John Mallory Asher, Wreckage brings the indistinguishable-victims-get-stalked-and-killed genre to a scrap yard; as the tagline so helpfully warns us, “The spare parts may be your own”. Unfortunately, Wreckage really isn’t a very good movie at all. It’s unbelievably clichéd and pans out like a paint-by-numbers slasher movie. There is nothing original at all plot wise, to the point where I wasn’t sure if the reveal of the killer at the end was actually supposed to be a twist or not, being that it had been so glaringly obvious throughout the duration of the film.
Jared (Mike Erwin) is a decent guy, an army vet with an honourable discharge after being wounded in Afghanistan, who is madly and happily in love with his fiancée Kate (Cameron Richardson). Inexplicably they are friends with Rick (Aaron Paul), a highly strung loser and his girlfriend Jessica (Kelly Kruger). I say inexplicably because I can see no reason whatsoever why these two couples would be friends with each other, as they don’t even seem to like each other very much. Having said that the actions of the characters often change mysteriously; one minute Rick is berating Jessica and insinuating that he is only with her because she got pregnant, the next they are laughing and hugging like a happy couple. So clearly character motivation is the least of our concerns.
Our bickering foursome set off to do some drag racing, but unfortunately for them Jared’s car breaks down leaving them stranded in a local scrap yard where things start to get weird after Rick accidentally shoots Kate. The local sheriff turns up with a paramedic and the least likely doctor I’ve seen since Tara Reid was cast as a genius anthropologist in Alone in the Dark, along with Frank (Scoot McNairy) the hick nephew of the scrap yard owner, and one by one they are offed by a masked killer assumed to be a madman recently escaped from the local mental hospital.
It’s actually impressive that the filmmakers made a seemingly simple plot quite so convoluted, but that they did and it makes for somewhat confusing watching. Added to this you care nothing about the characters and know even less about them or their motivations. Wrecked appears to have been made by people and for people who have never seen a horror movie in their entire lives. It’s no surprise then that it’s been sitting on a shelf somewhere for over a year before now being released straight to DVD. Also, somewhat bizarrely the picture on the cover of the DVD doesn’t appear to bear any reflection on anything that actually occurs during the movie and the characters are described in the blurb on the back of the DVD as a group of teenagers, even though they are all clearly over 30.
The only saving grace is the acting, which for a crappy low budget slasher film, is actually pretty decent. Scoot McNairy in particular gives an entirely watchable and amusing performance as Frank, the hapless redneck junkyard attendant and Aaron Paul (best known as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad) as the unstable Rick. Unfortunately, a few okay performances don’t necessarily warrant a recommendation and I’d strongly avoid watching this if at all possible.
The DVD, mercifully, comes with no special features other than a trailer and it is available August 22nd on Region 2 DVD, should you choose not to heed my advice.