Go Away

Gathering together for a family reunion, a family meets at a remote house in the countryside for a special dinner celebration only to find the festivities interrupted by a vicious gang of intruders forcing them to play a deadly life-or-death game to escape but a further intruder may disrupt everyone's plans.

This was a fun and enjoyable slasher effort. One of the film's better elements here comes from the rather solid setup that takes place here. With the whole affair coming about nicely with the events of the cold open setting up the gang of intruders and how they operate featuring the games and cruel twists that come about, this sets up the intruders and their malevolent ways quite nicely. While this all plays out, the rest of the setup here features the trials and tribulations of the family that ranges from unfaithfulness to secretive relationships and ulterior motives to everything going on with them that all provide a great setup to this one. That provides the film with a lot of fun to be had once it gets to the invasion where the intruders start taking over the house. Utilizing plenty of rather effective and brutal stalking scenes of the family being targeted in the house under the guise of a demented series of games, this develops a slew of effective and suspenseful sequences with the group trying to make their way through the night. With encounters spread liberally throughout the house and managing to bring about a lot of encounters with pretty much everyone involved, it adds quite a bit to the film as that allows this one to dive into a rather brutal series of kills that feature quite a lot of great gore. Overall, these factors provide this with quite a lot to like about it while there are several small factors to hold this down. One of the most obvious flaws here is the rather unlikable main family that takes a lot of the interest out of the main section of the film. Again believing that a bunch of people spending time yelling at each for petty problems and general douchebaggery behavior is supposed to make them sympathetic, instead, it does the opposite and causes a bit of a struggle to care about them going forward. As well, there's also very little about the invading group that makes sense with little to no explanation for who they are, what their purpose is, why they targeted the group, or how it all works together with the other killer in the area which doesn't really affect it that much but does hold it back slightly.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, and a sex scene.

Masked intruders play cat and mouse with a family for an hour and a half. I've always liked movies that deal with these type of intrusions, but they have to be believable to be enjoyable. So when they get into the home, they announce that they've got cell phone blockers in place, so don't even think about trying to use your cell phone...I guess i could buy that, but what exactly does this group of thugs have that's blocking cell phones? Maybe they should have used the house phone to call the police, but they don't think of that until an hour into the movie. And if there was a gun in the house, this could all have been avoided, because the thugs just have knives and machetes.

Killers just kind of appear where they need to be to kill people when it's appropriate. There are very meager efforts at fighting back. All of this just makes the whole thing very unbelievable.

There are 2 female stars from the past, that I assume they were able to get for one day of shooting each. During dinner, Felissa Rose seems to be in another room, and she just bursts in every now and then to deliver some lines. Tuesday Knight has a larger role, but it's mostly just meeting her estranged daughter and a dinner table scene.

All that being said, if you liked the string of B-slasher movies that came out after Friday the 13th where it's just a bunch of random kills where people get stuck in some situation where most of them are very unbelievable, then you would really enjoy this movie. For everyone else, I think this one is just going to kind of fall flat.

This is the type of film that you watch because it is so cheesy and you want to yell at the screen because of how stupid the people are being. It was kind of a fun slasher, but they didn't really explain part of the story. It's almost like they ran out of time and budget I guess or they cut scenes that might've explain it so that part I didn't like it also starts Felissa Rose who I love so I enjoyed it and just definitely wasn't a perfect film.

The concept of the movie makes it seem like a traveling Jigsaw with deadly games - it's just some lame ass folx in masks who don't kill creatively at all. Cinematography, acting, writing... all hard to watch. Brief nudity may be the only redeemable part of this dude - depending if you like boobs or not.

With horror icons Tuesday Knight and Felissa Rose on the bill and David Kerr producing I knew this one was going to be a fun one and I was right! This is a home invasion movie with an unexpected twist and it's full of fun kills, sick light effects, practical gore and some very familiar faces from other David Kerr movies. As with Kerrs other films the cast is always fun and entertaining and I loved seeing so many familiar faces from Bloody Summer Camp, especially Matthew. Practical effects and gore are great, lots of blood and killer face offs! One of my favorite things about this movie is the cool lighting effects and camera angles, the scene in the basement and in the woods absolutely stunning shots! I will say this starts off a bit slow, but picks up and keeps you pretty entertained! I can't leave out the cameo from horror icon Thom Matthew's who is also one of the executive producers on this one, love seeing him on screen. Kerr delivers yet another great slasher with an amazing cast and fun kills, it's a fun twist on home invasion horror and it's definitely worth the watch!

Rather than rehash the plot (masked intruders ruin a family gathering), I'll tell you why you should watch this film.

For starters, "low-budget indie horror" does NOT equal "bad." It simply means you won't see expensive special effects, big sets, and glamorous costumes. But none of those things are needed for a movie to be good. Here's what IS needed:

Good, believable characters - this movie develops its characters more than most. They seem like real people and their interactions are believable - they aren't one-dimensional. Care was put into the writing, not just "oh, who can we kill?"

Good acting - every actor brings their "A" game to the role. They breathe life into the characters and you start to like them, which is unfortunate because then you get to the...

Good kills - every slasher film needs them! And this one has PLENTY. You'll see lots of deaths in fun and exciting ways - don't worry. And the practical effects and make-up look fantastic!

"Go Away" starts off quickly, then dials it back a bit for some character introduction and development, and then ramps up the fun again. It's an enjoyable ride that you'll be glad you took.

Overall rating: 8 stars.