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I think that the success of Stranger Things struck a big chord with many people, both fans and artists alike, even though ‘kids fight monsters’ isn’t exactly a new idea. One of the reasons the show felt different was the fake but sincere 80s context, adding a different level of homage and danger to the idea. The concept inherently is an interesting one — why not have the kids or teens take control of their lives and succeed where adults have failed? In theory, it’s a pretty compelling concept, but in practice, it’s easy to lose yourself.
Shortcut comes from Italian director Alessio Liguori and writer Daniele Cosci, who wrote his last movie (and debut feature length film). This is another horror movie from the pair, albeit with a different idea. The movies starts off with a bunch of British kids in a school bus, all various mild archetypes — artistic Bess (Sophie Jane Oliver), quiet Chris (Jack Kane), outgoing silly Karl (Zander Emlano), nerdy smartie Queenie (Molly Dew), and punkish badboy Reg (Zak Sutcliffe).
None are particularly well drawn or written, but the actors bring some decent life to each of them, with some more interesting than others. The kids are driving along a road in what I assume is Italy for a reason that is, I suppose, explained by the ‘International School’ sign on the bus. Their bus driver is a kindly old man (Terence Anderson), who is another fairly thinly drawn character, but again the actor provides the role with a lot of warmth and pathos.
With just a touch of flashbacks, barely used otherwise, we learn that there is a mysterious killer on the loose (David Keyes) who specifically targets kids and teens. Naturally. The bus goes along fine for a while until they come across a fallen tree blocking their path. Instead of turning around, the driver takes a random ‘shortcut’ (doom doom) and thus they’re on their way. But after they come across a dead animal along the way, the bus gets hijacked by our mysterious killer.
It’s all typical for now, until they head into a mysterious tunnel where the lights suddenly go out. And now we shift from a ‘killer on the bus’ movie to a ‘monster outside the bus’ movie as we hear typical horrifying screeches and the adults are toast, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. The movie then shifts once more into a ‘let’s problem solve this monster’ which involves some simplistic easy solutions and some very convoluted, sometimes difficult to follow ones.
Oddly enough, this is where the movie loses me more, when it’s trying to be more ‘unique’, because we lose track of the differences between the kids and they all become fairly similar heroic characters. It’s possibly due to a language thing, writing in another language is certainly very difficult, but the story loses steam after we leave the bus.
I think the strong parts of the movie are the young actors and the bus driver — the lunatic killer is a pretty broad character and the actor plays it pretty broadly. He is basically just a plot point to get the kids near the monster, but the dynamics of fear were more interesting than during the problem solving parts.
The movie has a lot holes in it, but it’s built well on the performances of the cast at least. It’s not a terrible movie or a new classic either, but there’s something of potential here — I feel like all of these kids have real potential, and there’s potential for the director too, although the weakest part is the screenplay. Clean all that up, and you might really have something.
Shortcut has a run time of 1 hour 20 minutes and is rated R for language throughout and some bloody images.
Gravitas Ventures
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