Shrooms

Stars: Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, Maya Hazen, Max Kasch, Sean McGinley, Alice Greczyn, Robert Hoffman

Director: Paddy Breathnach

Familiar horror-film territory here, with teens running through woods pursued by hooded black figures, and getting bumped off one by one. The only things that distinguish this not-very-scary number from a hundred others are its twist in the tail, and the fact that it's an Irish-UK-Danish co-production. Can't be many of those.

Five American college students come to Ireland to sample the properties of 'magic mushrooms' that grow there. 'Strange things happen here in 'shroom season,' warns their guide (Huston, nephew of Anjelica) before he scares the bejasus out of everyone with midnight tales of tormented boys, 'Black Brothers' and an orphanage from hell.

Despite that warning, Tara (Haun) eats one of the forbidden 'death cap' mushrooms, which supposedly engender, 'evil, shape-shifting and communication with the dead', goes into shivering fits and suffers recurring visions in which she sees her companions killed, all of which, naturally, prove all too real.

Conveniently, the guide has confiscated all mobile phones which, when they're needed, disappear. The solution to this isn't hard to see and nearly as routine as the rest of the film, although the director does his best to disguise it, and none of the cast can be faulted for effort, even if they have to say 'Hello?' and 'Wait here' at the all the expected scare-movie moments.

David Quinlan

Ireland/UK/Denmark 2006. UK Distributor: Vertigo. Colour.
84 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 1, Swearing 1.

Review date: 17 Nov 2007