Studio: IFC Films/Shudder
Director: Steffen Haars
Writer: Nick Frost
Producer: Lee Kim, John Hegeman, Nick Frost, Aram Tertzakian, Nick Spicer, Maxime Cottray
Stars: Nick Frost, Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft, Maisie Ayres, Ville Virtanen, Eero Milonoff, Anitta Suikkari
Review Score:
Summary:
Excited to attend an obscure festival, a British family vacations on a secluded Swedish island where a gruesome killing spree unfolds.
Review:
Every ten years, the secluded Swedish island of Svalta celebrates a most unusual anniversary. Two centuries ago in 1824, the island’s close-knit population quarantined itself out of fear for a deadly flu pandemic. That pandemic lasted two and a half years on the mainland, and even longer on Svalta. So long, in fact, townspeople took to cannibalism to feed their families while numerous others died. To commemorate this tragedy, islanders created a weird festival called Karantan, an eight-hour event highlighted by a community theater-like performance where powdered-wig colonialists stomp across the stage with man-sized chickens comically laying golden eggs.
Sounds like something you have to see in person to wrap your head around how bizarre it truly is. Seeing Karantan in person is exactly what jovial family man Richard and his spunky wife Susan intend to do. Cynical daughter Jessie and annoying son Sam tag along for the trip too, though they act like they’d rather be anywhere other than playing makeshift Midsommar with their embarrassing parents.
Outsiders aren’t exactly welcome on Svalta, but that’s not stopping this quartet of quirky British tourists from attending this year’s festivities. At a seaside café beforehand, during their ferry ride across the water, and upon arriving on the island, side eyes from locals make it clear these cheery strangers shouldn’t have come. The only person offering anything close to a warm greeting is Matts, who rented the family his dead mother’s home, which is still furnished with the same chair where Matts’s mum was beheaded.
Circumstances grow stranger when Richard and Susan are woken at night by torch-bearing locals in dark robes and masks tossing a dead animal onto their porch. Jessie, meanwhile, gets the sense they are being secretly surveilled. Then, the owners of the café where everyone dined earlier end up slashed to pieces, bringing a dogged detective to the isle in search of a killer. Karantan hasn’t even begun yet, but considering the growing grief they’ve been given, the family’s odds of leaving Svalta alive seem to be getting slimmer by the second.
Remove adjectives like “jovial,” “quirky,” and “cheery” from the description above, and “Get Away” can sound pretty grim. Although it certainly has its fair share of blood-gushing slaughter, especially during the climax, the film veers closer to funny than to frightening courtesy of lowkey comedy. By “lowkey,” I mean to say the style isn’t steeped in Ace Ventura exaggeration, nor does it dabble overmuch in sardonic black humor. The four family members lean slightly into bouncy caricatures, then they’re dropped into a high-stakes situation where almost everyone around them operates only one click away from being bleakly serious.
Whenever I’m lukewarm on a horror/comedy, as I am on “Get Away,” I frequently add the caveat that I’m not big on horror-humor hybrids to begin with. That’s not a hard and fast rule by any means. Most times, my particular palate simply prefers separate servings rather than having laughs and scares mashed together on the same plate. I can be more objective than subjective on “Get Away,” however, because no matter what tastes anyone has, it’s straightforward to see where the movie bumbles its balance.
Punchlines have a head-on collision with perversion in the form of a character whose unsavory interest in Jessie takes a couple of uncomfortable turns. “Get Away” touches the line with a scene where a man watches the young woman from the hidden side of a one-way mirror in her bedroom, then licks the glass where she, sensing someone on the other side, drew a heart in a cloud of her breath. That line gets crossed later when the same man dresses in Jessie’s underwear, then crawls into her bed for a spooning session while she lies unconscious from a Cosby cookie he drugged her with. That’s a pretty creepy current of deviancy to have prominent placement in what’s supposed to be a comedy, and “Get Away’s” repeated use of it does an unintendedly impeccable job of reversing a mirthful mood every time.
“Get Away’s” sore thumbs don’t always stick out with bright redness. Some inconsistent vibes arise as questionable cutaways, like Richard suddenly slapping at some pesky birds for a few seconds while his kids laughingly taunt him. Others come from thudding jokes like vegetarian Sam objecting to eating an egg because he considers it a “hen fetus,” or an angered cook objecting to the assertion that he serves dry breakfast by shouting, “My waffles are moist!” Admittedly, I’m cherry-picking a couple of lame lines, but it’s to make a point that not all of the comedy crackles.
After a comparatively unambitious first hour whose buildup seems even slower from how familiar it feels, “Get Away” wins back idle attention spans with a twist I didn’t see coming. I don’t see how it can be accurately predicted without a hint, either. I’m also not above awarding extra credit for Iron Maiden needle drops, so when “Get Away” finally hits a gory groove for its finale, the film turns off cruise control to speed through a splattery backend with inspired energy that would have been welcomed earlier.
Not quite a case of too little, too late, “Get Away” gains enough mad-dash momentum to crest over the hill of humdrum humor it had been coasting on until the ending. Steffen Haars’s uneven direction paves a winding road for the movie to find its footing, and Nick Frost’s script wobbles too, what with how better bits sleepily sit on the back burner. “Get Away” ends up slightly satisfying in the end, although one more pass to pepper in more gags might have made for a more distinctive outing in oddness.
Review Score: 50
Not quite a case of too little, too late, “Get Away” gains enough mad-dash momentum to crest over the hill of humdrum humor it had been coasting on until the ending.