Opinions of a Wolf

Summary:
Five Americans–two straight couples and one single gal–go to Ireland with two sole purposes: take shrooms and land their Irish pal as a boyfriend for the single gal.  Their friend takes them into the forest and aids them in gathering the shrooms.  As they are making the tea, the Irishman tells them the tale of the Black Brother and the Lonely Twin, an evil priest and the boy he tortured at a now abandoned school for troubled youth nearby.  As the night wears on the next day comes, the friends are left wondering if the horrors they are now seeing are the result of an open portal to the supernatural or just a bad trip.

Review:
This was a fun twist on the slasher flick norms, obviously not too heavy on characterizations as I can’t remember most of the character’s names.  I do know the annoying jock guy was named Bluto, because that’s just a hilarious name.  Anyway, the story is told from the perspective of the member of the group who ate a bad shroom and is now having premonitions about people’s deaths.  That part is rather like Final Destination, only in this case we know the person having the premonitions is high, so her believability is even more questionable.

The Black Brother is deliciously creepy.  He alternates between moving on what appear to be broken feet, floating, and crawling down from the trees.  His face is always obscured by his monk-like robe.  The cinematography is pretty good for a B-level horror flick.  The premonition and supernatural bits are just wobbly enough to give the viewer a bit of a high feeling themselves without being too distracting from the story.

The acting is typical of what you find in B level movies.  The actors all have their shrieking down to a science.  They’re good at being scared, which is all that really matters.  Unfortunately, the actor who plays the Irish guy is completely incapable of an Irish accent and manages to just sound British the entire time.  That’s a bit distracting, but oh well.

There is one scene early in the movie that sold it to me right away as a slightly laughable but still creepy slasher flick.  It involves a hallucinated cow who warns Bluto that he’s about to become a “dead fucker.”  I mean, a creepy talking cow?  Total B-movie win!

What really moved Shrooms up from a 3 star to a 4 star level for me though was the ending.  I can’t tell you what it is, obviously, but I can tell you that I didn’t figure it out, and it was legitimately creepy.

If you enjoy B-level slasher flicks with a sense of humor, such as Final Destination, you’ll definitely enjoy Shrooms.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: Netflix

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