Enter Nowhere (2011)
Starring: Sara Paxton, Scott Eastwood, Katherine Waterston
Writers: Shawn Christensen, Jason Dolan
Director: Jack Heller
Story:
Three strangers from entirely different
walks of life end up at a remote cabin in the woods. Fuck. I know,
right? But wait, this is different... fuck, again! But no, it kinda
is. Every attempt to leave the cabin and find a way out of the woods
proves to be unsuccessful, as they always end back where they started
(great analogy used to for this in the film). They're low on food,
low on hope and freezing their asses off. Slowly but surely, the
three strangers realize they're at this remote cabin for a reason,
and it is imperative to stick together to unlock the truth.
Review:
There's definitely a Hitchcock-like and/or Twilight Zone vibe going on here. Not on that level of brilliance, by any
stretch, but we're in the same vein. This flick throws all kinds of
twists and turns your way, but unfortunately, none of them are quite
as unexpected as they should be. I suspect the lot of you dear
readers will be calling out what's about to happen literally frames
before it does, several times. However, this in no way means the
movie isn't entertaining; it certainly is. There's some great
interaction going on between characters, beautifully shot sequences,
and one helluva finish that ties the story up quite nicely. Enter
Nowhere has enough goodness to keep its head above water.
Tom Harting's cinematography for the
outside shots are awesome. Tons of great scenes of these seemingly
never ending woods, from aiming up views of the leafless trees, as
well as overhead aspects capturing the whole location. I gotta give
props to the plentiful Sara Paxton ass shots early on in the film,
too. Holy wow.
There's a few areas of stiff acting
here and there, but I was pretty pleased for the most part. Sara
Paxton as Jody is my absolute favorite. She's got some young Deborah
Harry look going on added with a bitchy attitude. I ate that shit up!
Tom is played by Scott Eastwood, son of big Daddy Clint! Holy fuck,
this dude sounds and looks a helluva lot like his father back in his
heyday. Dude's got a pretty impressive performance here. Lastly,
Katherine Waterston plays Samantha, the goody two-shoes exact opposite
of Jody. She is where the stiff acting comes in. Not
all bad, just seemed like a struggle a few times. The actual character is my least favorite, though; bitch does a few things that particularly
made me wanna punch her in the face. All in all, the acting
between these three is really what made Enter Nowhere so entertaining
for me. It's a pretty diverse trio, which always makes things more
interesting.
Truth be told, this isn't really a horror
film! I'm not sure if it was marketed as such, as I've never seen a
single trailer for it; just sayin' don't expect ooey-gooey
gory shit all over the place. If anything, I applaud a movie about
people inside a remote cabin in the woods that ISN'T a horror film.
There are a couple of pretty cool visual FX, but on the same token,
there are some pretty damn bad ones, as well. This is really the only
element that shows the movie was made for less than a million
dollars.
Man, there is a damn catchy song
that plays in this movie called “My Coco”. I was fucking elated
when I discovered the name of the band is Stellastarr*, as Stella
Star from Luigi Cozzi's Starcrash is one of the hottest freakin'
Sci-Fi babes I've ever gotten a stiffy over. Thanks to Caroline Munro
for that! Anyway, the song rules. I don't remember much about the
actual film score, unfortunately.
Final words- Enter Nowhere is a pretty
good way to kill off 90 minutes. While I mentioned some of the twists
seem a bit premature, I found the overall idea to be smart and
inventive. Worth a watch.
