Paddy Breathnach’s feature film is a surprisingly enjoyable and effective terror trip which sees a group of six friends travel to Ireland for a weekend of camping in the remote wilderness only to be bumped off in creepy ways by some strange local characters.
Whilst Shrooms does not deal with anything terribly new to the genre, it manages to be a film which presents its elements in unique ways. This time it’s Americans venturing across the pond to Ireland instead of backwoods West Virginia or Texas (as is the norm in this genre) and it’s quite refreshing to see them learn about some of our cultural past times such as dogging and the titular shrooms.
The cast which is headed by Lindsay Haun (Village of the Damned) and rising star Jack Huston all turn in good performances and even manage to make their two dimensional characters slightly memorable.
The death scenes truly are trippy, as is some of the photography and the eerie locations all add to the proceedings.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Shrooms is an above average and enjoyable little horror treat that manages to squeeze some originality out of it’s pretty conventional screenplay and throws in some novel ideas, such as a new way to cut off communication via cell phones. In the end, it’s a dark trip worth taking.