Billed as, and starts as a generic horror movie - a group of five decide to head on out of town to a remote, deserted cabin for the weekend.
But the first few minutes of the film are set in a CIA-like facility where everyone's dressed in white shirts and black ties, and when the group set off for their weekend, another CIA-type is watching their house.
There are some saving graces for this film:
1. It has some serious actors: Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) and Bradley Whitford (West Wing)
2. It knows when it's poking fun at itself: one creature is listed in the credits as "Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain".
The fact that there's a whole organization of CIA types watching this on CCTV, even betting on the outcome, tends to undermine - in a good way - the cliched events that unfold, like when the group is playing "truth or dare" (#1 on the list of things NOT to do when you're in a deserted cabin in the woods) and the cellar door pops open and they go down to investigate (#2 on the list, etc), and then one of them reads aloud from a Latin book they find in the cellar (#3 on the list ..)
From there, the film either descends into the same old territory covered by a thousand other horror flicks, or ascends into the campy, fun-poke you might be looking for.
One scene epitomizes that camp-ness:
... As it breaks from the "action" to the team watching it all .... when one woman objects that she hadn't won the prize despite picking "Zombies" as the creatures that would first make an appearance. "No, 'Zombies' are entirely different to 'Zombie Redneck Torture Family', just like 'Elephants' are different to 'Elephant Seals'".
And another, as one "CIA" controller looks on at the developing scene, pulls a lever and says "Engaging pheromone mist".
I've got one of those on order from Amazon.
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