Kaffeine Buzz
reviews independent and foreign films,
in addition to reporting the latest buzz behind
Colorado's film festivals.
Shrooms (Paddy Breathnach)
It’s quite common for a group of people,
from their teens all the way to their thirties
(and beyond) to take trips to the mountains with
a bag of schrooms as an escape from reality. Traveling
5,000 miles to Ireland to do the same thing, like
the five, wacky college kids do, is just the beginning
of a plot that stands on shaky ground for most
of this film.
Let’s just say that this is a logical pursuit,
and that the lead character, the good Catholic
girl Tara (Lindsey Haun),
really does have to travel that far away from
her overbearing father to have an adventure. What
led her to the forests of Ireland was her summer
fling, Jake, who is from the
emerald colored country, and invites her and their
mutual college friends to join him for this trip
to the wild side.
The double entendre of the film’s tagline,
“Get Ready to Get Wasted,” wasn’t
the only groaner when it came the writing, especially
at the beginning of the film. As the story unfolds,
Tara unknowingly takes the “heroin”
of mushrooms, which can be fatal. She of course
is chomping down on the little fungus as Jake
is in another part of the woods, giving this education
to the other two girls, Holly
(Alice Greczyn) and Lisa
(Maya Hazen). Sure enough, she
goes into convulsions, and Jake finds her just
in time to give her mouth-to-mouth and bring her
back. The legend is: one who survives after eating
this type of mushroom will not only take that
hallucinogenic trip of a lifetime, but will have
premonitions and heightened awareness, among other
talents.
Although his pseudo girlfriend nearly dies, the
thought of taking her to the hospital never enters
anyone’s mind. Yes, I know. Then the movie
would be over. Instead, they all decide to start
tripping, and Tara decides to sleep. For anyone
who’s taken schrooms, they’ll know
how impossible that is to do while the colourful
chemicals are still in the system. But this is
a movie, so in this case, she begins her crystal
ball journey through her dreams.
The rest decide to sleep as well, and as Troy
(Max Kasch) and Holly are making
out in their tent, she sees a shadow of a person
walking outside the tent. She freaks, and her
boyfriend assures her that’s she be straight
trippin’ boo. Then he sees the same thing,
and calls out Bluto (Rob
Hoffman), the boyfriend of Lisa, and
that couple emerges from the tent. The boys get
into a fight, and Tara runs out to break things
up, but before she can, Bluto (the “jock”
character of the group who takes steroids and
wears a set of bling rings he must have gotten
from the Flavor Flav fan club) knocks Troy in
the nose.
Tara’s response? “I knew he was going
to get hurt! I knew he was going to get hurt!”
Fortunately, the daylight comes and that’s
when things get interesting. Aside from the typical
girl running from killer, girl falling again and
again, the cinematography and color scheme used
in the middle portion of the film actually works
quite well to get you pulled into the film. Even
in daylight, the dark greens and the density of
the forest becomes its own character, where things
can appear out of no where. The acting wasn’t
half bad either, and they were all quite convincing
in their fear/tripping on drugs combo.
Where horror films really succeed is when the
characters act in a way that your average person
would, like wait outside the creepy house for
their friends and not inside the storeroom where
the previous carnage took place. And even when
they follow the most logical path to freedom,
it’s still not enough, and they’re
overtaken by whatever demon is starring in said
horror film.
I have to give credit to the "Shrooms"
ending twist, which make the last two minutes
of the film probably the most enjoyable of the
84 minutes. I can’t say anything other than,
“wait for it…wait for it…”
