Shrooms (2008)
Director: Paddy Breathnach
Cast: Sean McGinley, Joe Phelan, Lindsey Haun, Anna Tikhonova, Don Wycherley
Magnolia / Unrated / NTSC R1 / Widescreen 2.35:1 / Dolby / Language: English / Subtitles: Spanish / 84 minutes / PURCHASE
A group of American friends head off to Ireland to meet an old college chum to camp out under the stars and trip on some famous Irish mushrooms. Obviously you have your stoner, his hippie girlfriend, the pretty girl and her meathead boyfriend, the Irish guy and of course, the good girl who has never done drugs. Upon arrival they are told about what ’shrooms to pick and what they look like. But only 2 of them were told which ones were EVIL!
The story is, if you eat the EVIL mushroom (that look incredibly like a boob), one of three things will happen; You will die a horrible death with your insides exploding. You will either trip hard but in your hallucinations you will be able to see the future or lastly, become a homicidal maniac like the mad monk (for lack of a better word that’s what we’ll call him) of the terrible religious cult thingie! *AAAAAAAAHHHH!* “What mad monk of the terrible religious cult thingie?”, you ask? Well, it turns out that right out in the same woods they are camping in, a sadistic monk (or whatever that thing is) was poisoned with those very same EVIL mushrooms and killed like a bajillion people. *EEEEEEEEK!*
So, the girl who has never taken drugs eats one of these EVIL mushrooms (because obviously she didn’t hear the EVIL mushroom story) and she begins to have premonitions about the mad monk killing all of her friends. One by one they drink ’shroom tea, trip balls and get killed off all the while this goodie-two-shoes already knows who’s going to die. Damn, some people catch all the breaks.
Let me tell you right now who almost died…me, from boredom. This is the type of movie that teenagers today (those darn kids!) will probably eat up but if you have a brain cell in your head you will want to laugh and throw things at the screen. All of the “scares” are from quick cuts and the herky-jerky motion shit from The Grudge, The Ring, et al. Contrived, cliched bullshit with a “surprise” ending that Helen Keller could have seen (and heard!) coming.
I had pretty high hopes for this because it seemed like maybe a hillbilly slasher with a new twist. But I was denied and all I was given was this rotten tomato. *SPLAT!*
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I give it props for being one of the only Irish horror films.
Irish horror flicks you say? It’s true, there haven’t been too many and most fall under the zombie genre. For anyone who may be looking for some more Irish horror titles try “Dead Meat”, “Boy Eats Girl”, “Zombie Genocide”, “Isolation” or “Rawhead Rex”
Wow, this movie has a bad smell coming off of it.
And Rawhead Rex is still one of the best titled films out there.
“Rawhead Rex” is also one of the best short stories ever written. Clive Barker is King!