1h 26m
Director: Paddy Breathnach

A few youngsters go to the countryside to try magic mushrooms together. There's lots of drug use in this movie so if you don't approve of that sort of thing then you probably won't enjoy it.

It's a horror with some pretty silly moments but if you've ever tried magic mushrooms (they used to be legal in Amsterdam) then you'll definitely relate to some of the experiences depicted.

If you've ever been young in the UK then seeing a few teenagers on a camping trip together doing those things that young people like to do will no doubt bring back some fond memories. If you are still young then what are you doing watching a film? Go out and get some experiences inside you before it's too late!

I shouldn't really have to say it but I'm going to anyway. Don't take anything you see in a work of fiction as fact. One of the characters talks about the different types of magic mushroom that grow in the wild. DON'T LISTEN TO ANY OF IT, EATING THE WRONG TYPE WILL KILL YOU. Silly warning, shouldn't have to mention it, but there's always one wally!

This is a great Halloween movie with scenes of the group sitting around a fire telling scary stories. One of the girls (Tara) has already ingested something and has started hallucinating when she overhears a story which foreshadows a later encounter. She experiences premonitions apparently.

There is a play on whether something is real or a hallucination when drugs are involved and it adds a bit of mystery to proceedings. Drugs also cause paranoia too which this film doesn't hesitate to use.

So when the killing starts you don't know if what you're seeing is actually real or not which serves to lighten the stakes a bit, at least at first. Throw in the contents of Tara's hallucinogen addled mind and you can see there are several avenues of misdirection for the narrative to explore.

It's occasionally intense because of the heightened emotions caused by the drugs. This is all an argument of course for why keeping your characters sober adds to the horror, the audience is always sure about what is actually happening.

Still, it's quite entertaining to find out what happens when your protagonists are intoxicated, especially with hallucinogens as you can pretty much show your audience anything you want!

Turns out that Tara was the murderer all along and the drugs had turned her into a psychotic monster.

Under the dark satire of this movie lies a little warning about this sort of intoxicant, hallucinogens really do mess with the inputs to your brain so if you're getting mashed with your mates then consider that possibility. I suppose the obvious example is with something like LSD which can sometimes make people believe they can fly to the point that they hurl themselves off the nearest multi-storey car park.

A few very grainy shots wouldn't have bothered me when I first saw this but upsets me a bit these days because it points to shoddy lighting. They're mostly in the first few minutes of the run time though so hold on if that sort of thing irritates you. You can fix this problem with a light meter and just bin any bad looking shots which is what you're supposed to do.

Otherwise, it's a bit of fun and it's a short watch, it's not too gory!



Trailer: