Typically horror isn’t in my wheelhouse, but I do like to switch it up on occasion. That especially goes for films that pull off story concepts that bode as traditional until its makers take its viewers aback with mind-bending twists that reveal the director’s work as something entirely different that what it sets out to be in the mind’s eye. Get Away is exactly that kind of film, and from none other than director Steffen Haars and actor/screenwriter Nick Frost.
Murky foreshadowing is the visual and atmospheric start to the more jubilant intro of the Smith family (played by Frost and actors Nick Frost, Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft, and Maisie Ayres), whose trip to the remote Swedish island of Svalta is rife with annoying trivia and grim warnings from the locals before getting on the ferry. Once there, they come in contact with the unfriendly island villagers before connecting with their BnB host, Matt (Eero Milonoff), kicking off the first of a three-day countdown to the latest decennial event known as “karantän,” a festival that pays tribute to the memory of victims from a horrible event two centuries earlier.
What follows for the Smith family is a two-day spell of eerie discoveries as they make do with their surroundings. It’s weird, really, because this is pretty much two-thirds of the film and it really does take that long to see just what happens. By doing so, you spend more than half the film looking at Get Away as an allegory on ontology and the consequences of being coy with spaces and barriers. Richard (Frost) and Susan (Bea) are the loving couple who sometimes butt heads and bicker about little things while still affectionate for one another, and Sam (Croft) and Jessie (Ayres) are the smartphone-obsessed young-adult siblings who jive and talk smack to each other, and couldn’t really be bothered with a whole lot else unless it piques their interest.
All these aspects and more make up a script that presents Get Away as something that feels like a predictable horror comedy with its own whipsmart allure. There are just a few little moments here and there that leave you otherwise guessing, including when Jessie and Matt share a brisk face-to-face in passing, suggesting an unwritten, almost seductive oddball chemistry that would immediately set off cringe alarms for anyone else.
There’s also another where Jessie walks up to a mirror and draws a heart-shape on her breath mark. Unless you’ve already caught onto what’s happening between these little oddities throughout the script, you can’t help but compliment Haars and Frost for doing such an excellent job at keeping you watching, and guessing. Midway into the film we meet Detective Forsberg (Ville Virtanen) who arrives at a crime scene that was just host to a scene earlier in the film, in addition to word of a presumed killer on the loose, all mixed into a well-stirred broth of historically grim and gory proportions that add up to perhaps one of the most satisfying half-hours you’ll see in a horror flick like this.
Get Away takes the vacation horror genre and turns it completely on its head with violent and sardonic effect, exploring a chilling tale of colonialism, age-old grudges and affliction masked as addition, and presented through a darkly comedic lens. Anitta Suikkari and Jouko Ahola commit to fantastic performances of their own which enhance the backdrop of everything Haars wants us to believe Get Away sets out to be, and right through the film’s bloody recapitulation. Talk of cannibalism, the occult, and static imagery to cohese the film’s unnerving progression is enough for mild effect while stabbings, bludgeonings, severed limbs, body parts and chaos amuck are more the film’s calling before the credits role.
I would explain more into how all these fall into place for the film’s eighty six minute duration, but that wouldn’t be without expanding a tad extra on plot details. I went into this film mostly blind and so regardless if you read this review or not, I hope you’ll go into it the same way. If you did read it, thank you, and be sure to catch Get Away in theaters nationwide on December 6 from IFC Films and Shudder.
