Low Budget Love - Shuttle
Film: Shuttle (2008)
Another trek into the dollar bin took me down a road I really wasn't ready for. When I picked up this movie, looking it over gave me the definite vibes of something like Joy Ride or The Hitcher. So once I fired it up and got into it, that's what I was sort of expecting
Initially, it looked like that's exactly what I was going to get. But as the movie progressed, what I found was a deep, dark, and emotionally draining horror movie that ends with a solid gut punch.
The film starts like almost any other horror film. We get young people, relationship issues, and bad decisions. As our characters pile into the titular airport shuttle, the movie begins to kick into another gear, but not necessarily with pace. The tone becomes very serious, and the violence begins.
This film did do a lot of things very well. Atmosphere, is the first thing that comes to mind. You can feel the shuttle become a prison, and the night that imposes its will into every scene adds to the over dark tone of what comes along within the story.
The gore itself is well placed, and pretty well done. It makes every moment of it matter, and makes the viewer more uncomfortable at every appearance. It matches the tone, and in that it succeeds in making the plight of our protagonists feel very visceral. As it progresses it creates squeamish moments not from sheer brutality, but from the reasons behind it.
Then we come to the plot. There are a fair number of twists, some big and some small. It really keeps you on edge, adding to the overall off putting feeling you get from watching it, which is what many good horror movies do. You want to turn away, but you just can't.
As we move into the climactic ending, it becomes clear what awaits the characters, and knowing its coming is even more of a striking move from the film. Ripping its horror from headlines, the sex trade becomes the ominous true villain of the film.
What the movie does is it makes it feel like it could really happen, and that is its most terrifying and effective component. Despite the circumstances, it all feels almost too real, and that is where it really starts to take your emotions and put them into the blender.
The end itself is quite a great sequence. Heart pounding moments, anxiety, brutality, and the feeling of helplessness line every moment as the story reaches it end. Honestly, I felt very similar after this film as I did when I first saw The Mist. It hurt, I was speechless, and I was impressed with what I had just seen.
This is a great film. Well worth my dollar spent. I only wish I had been more prepared for what I was getting into beforehand. I was expecting some fast paced transportation themed slasher, and what I got was a nerve wrecking masterpiece. Be warned, it gets heavy and depressing, but it is quite a trip to take.
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