The Cottage

My brief hatchet-job sent to DVD Monthly review:

It is extremely difficult to find a coherent balance between humour and horror. Only a few filmmakers have successfully gelled the two together. Although ever since Shaun of the Dead we have had numerous amounts of copycat filmmakers trying to cash in on its success. But The Cottage has to be the least effective attempt to date.

The main problem is that the film is neither genuinely funny nor scary. Where most filmmakers trying to tap into this comedy/horror genre usually only achieve one requirement or the other, The Cottage misses both completely.

In the first, supposedly comedic, half of the film, Serkis and Shearsmith endlessly bumble around trying to keep the feisty Ellison under wraps. Constantly making mistakes events are far too repetitive. Each character just emphasises their stereotypical characteristics; Shearsmith is a weak coward, Serkis is a hard man and Ellison is a tough babe. The dialogue itself is not witty by any means and just involves a lot of people shouting and swearing at each other. So by the time the horror arrives we couldn’t care less about what happens to anyone. In a sudden stark contrast of events with no sense of development the atmosphere is nowhere near as chilling, shocking or repulsive as it wants to be.

Obviously The Cottage was never going to be ground-breaking as a horror or as a comedy but even as a throwaway piece of entertainment it just isn’t that good. Director/screenwriter Paul Andrew Williams should stick to what he is best at which is realistic gritty drama, as proven with his brilliant hard-hitting debut London to Brighton.

In a few brief extras a great deal of emphasis is placed on how the horror and humour were successfully meshed together. This couldn’t be any further from the truth and suggests how all those involved weren’t really paying attention to the film they were actually making.

Overall: Lasting only a brief 87minutes, this is nothing other than an instantly forgettable Shaun of the Dead bi-product.