ShortCut; Jeepers Creepers 2 Would Like to Have a Word. Grade: D
Shortcut tells a story about a group of teenagers on a bus, as their heading towards their desired destination. While they reached a dead end, the bus driver named Joe (Terence Anderson) decides to reroute and take a short cut. They encounter a deer on the road, as while Joe clears the deer off the road, the man was then encountered by a crazy lunatic whom happens to love devouring people’s tongues, as he puts the entire bus on hostage. As the bus then breaks down in a dark tunnel, Joe encounters a strange hooded figure, which happens to be an entity. Joe then gets murdered by this entity, as now the teenagers on the bus and the crazy lunatic are all in great danger.
The Cinematography was fine I guess, I did liked the over view shot of the bus when it was encountering day light near a shadow. I will say as far as production design goes, I did actually liked the design of the bus, looked reminiscent to Trolly in Mister Rogers Neighborhood. The Score was lame, it wanted to be like Stranger Things, but was honestly below mediocrity. This film has a serious problem with sound mixing, as the music or events partaken in this film, was over barring as you sometimes can’t understand what the characters are saying half of the time. I thought the cast as a whole was ok. Some performances in which one felt liked their over acting at times, like some of the reactions these actors make, in the characters situations was unintentionally funny. Also it’s worth noting that the one leading the hostage, may have been the most friendliest hostage I’ve ever experienced. Other than the gun point being at play, just how this lunatic reacted didn’t really made me feel like my life would be in danger, could be that his voice is just way too calm to be executing a hostage.
After watching Shortcut, the only reaction I have is I felt as if I watched a watered down version of Jeepers Creepers 2. Jeepers Creepers 2 is not a good movie either, but I will say I do recall some fun moments, and even felt the creature design was at least presentable. With this film it really holds itself back by delivering any sense of true horror, but not only that it’s entirely unoriginal as well. You can tell this film felt inspired by the modern day version of IT and especially Stranger Things, as it honestly felt completely distracting and to the point where I rather have watched both of those instead.
I believe the chemistry between this “Connected” group of friends, was entirely unbelievable as the film at the end just tells you that they are a great group of friends. I never once felt they were like a family like the kids from IT and Stranger Things were, when your own film tells you that they are a beloved group of friends, you can see there is a fair amount of distrust as your own film doesn’t believe it either.
The story itself is my biggest flaw, as this film wants to be three things. It wants to be a hostage story, an isolation story, and then some kind of whacky little mystery story on how to defeat this monster, with an entire back story nobody really cares about. This whole mystery/maze portion of the story was completely stupid, as so much screen time really goes south, as the film tries to make the audience feel a connection with these characters, but it honestly loses any momentum this story has going for. It almost feels like these characters are holding themselves back from escaping which they could’ve easily have done, but instead rather waste time and discover the entire history of this stupid monster. It’s also worth noting how cheap and ridiculous this monster looks, so you’re not catered to scary or fun monster coverage.
It’s a horror film in which wants to be many different things, tries to mimic well known properties, yet completely falls on it’s face.
Overall, Shortcut is a bad film. I don’t recommend this film. -Mitch Smietana