Blood Cabin (Murder Loves Killers Too) (2008)
Distributor (UK): 4Digital Media
DVD Release Date (UK): 4th April 2011
Directed by: Drew Barnhardt
Starring: Allen Andrews, Christine Haeberman, Scott Christian, Mary LeGault
Review by: Ben Bussey
Isn’t it always the way; a low budget horror film does shitty business under one title so they release it overseas with a completely different one, usually the most generic title they can come up with. It’s a time honoured trick of unscrupulous distributors, and as such a convention of exploitation, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. So here, a movie that is known to the Region 1 market as Murder Loves Killers Too (which incidentally was pretty well recieved by Marc on release) is launched on Region 2 as Blood Cabin. Hmm. So we go from a fairly enigmatic title from which we might expect a low budget slasher film with uncharacteristic wit and psychological depth, to a title which suggests just about the most run-of-the-mill formulaic slasher you’ve ever heard of.
So what is this film? Is it an insightful look into the mindset of a slasher villian, exploring the fetishes that drive him to commit murder? Or is it just a film set in a cabin where blood gets spilt? Well, as Grampa Simpson once said: a little from column A, a little from column B.
The premise is, indeed, about as textbook as it gets. Five college kids – three girls, two boys (why, it’s Evil Dead even down to the gender balance) – drive out to a woodland cabin, loaded up with booze and hormones. Among their number we have the obligatory at-it-like-rabbits couple; the ludicrously over-excited girl screaming obsessively about how she wants to PARTY!!!; the too-cool-for-school single guy, naturally hoping to hook up; and the more aloof, introverted girl in tomboyish-yet-still-figure-enchancing skinny vest and jeans (coughFINALGIRLahem). They hit the cabin, crack open the liquor, and show a bit of skin (much obliged Ms LeGault), all the while blissfully unaware of that which we, the audience, have known was coming since before we even pressed play: there’s a homicidal maniac on the premises.
Here’s where things start to break from the norm a tad. The killer here is Big Stevie, played by Allen Andrews, and he’s just about the most ordinary-looking fortysomething you’ve ever laid eyes on. Male-pattern baldness, middle-aged spread, the usual. I guess the intent is to give us a model of slasher that’s a little more grounded in reality; I must confess, I often wonder what people have against good ol’ fashioned silent pyschos in masks these days. But this is the first in a number of less conventional turns taken in the course of a film which is small in scale and, at less than 80 minutes, short in duration.
Any horror film with kids in a cabin invariably invites comparison to The Evil Dead, but it’s particularly apt a reference point here, not because of the gore (which is mild by comparison) but because of the energetic and inventive technique. Drew Barnhardt’s script may hardly break new ground, but he crafts a great many striking sequences, from the bombardment of the early car-based montage to the long take introduction to the cabin. The music is also notably superior to most microbudget horrors, boasting a slew of original compositions ranging from funk to thrash, and a score that goes from Carpenter to Goblin.
In trying to defy expectation, the film may well bite off a little more than it can chew at times, piling on Lynchian weirdness that feels a tad forced. But the simple fact that it is making an effort sets it apart from the vast majority of its DV-shot peers. It’s no great breakthrough piece, but it certainly demonstrates that Drew Barnhardt knows what he’s doing, earning him a spot in the ‘one-to-watch’ files. Oh, and it definitely deserves a considerably more distinctive title than Blood Cabin.