Cub is not going to appeal to everyone,
but if you’re looking for a nasty little horror throwback, you can do a lot
worse than this Belgian flick. It’s certainly not afraid to get down and dirty
and mean when it needs to, and fits nicely into the “kids go camping and find
something scary they didn’t expect” subgenre.
When a group of cub scouts head out to the woods for an
overnight excursion, their slacker troop leaders instill a level of fear by
imparting stories about monsters lurking in the wilderness. As it turns out,
there is something very real waiting in the woods for them to be afraid of. The
group is full of types—you’ve got the bully, the nerd, the liar, the fat
kid—and then there’s Sam (Maurice Luijten), the weird kid, the loner who has
some unspecified issues that only come out over time. He also looks remarkably
like a young River Phoenix, and turns in a decent performance as the “fucked up
kid.”
Director Jonas Govaerts’ film hits a number of familiar
tropes, like sinister townies and inept/disinterested local cops, but it makes
nice use of the isolated setting and locations, like an abandoned bus factory.
Apparently when the plant closed, it hit the economy hard and, according to one
resident, they had to cut a lot of bodies down from the trees. Basically, the
kids wind up camping in a suicide field, which never bodes well.
This is just one of the layers that serves to pile on the
tension. There are whispers of Sam’s violent, traumatic past; he sees things in
the woods, but with history of making up stories, he’s the proverbial boy who
cried wolf. Creepy settings, a throwback synth score from Steve Moore, and
elements like the boys singing a song begging God not to forsake them, all add
to the atmosphere of increasing pressure and doom.
When strange things start happening, like possessions
disappearing in the night, Sam is the obvious suspect, but we know that there
is more going on, though precisely what remains unclear. You’re never sure if
they’re dealing with monsters, something supernatural, or the Belgian equivalent
of crazy backwoods hillbillies driven mad by the death of their town and way of
life—there are undercurrents of larger economic issues in play throughout. This
information, like much else in Cub, is doled out gradually
over the course of the movie in order to ratchet up the tension, and this is
where the film is the strongest, where it is really in its element.
Eventually, what begins as folk tale-based story takes a
turn and becomes a hard edged, grim, downright nasty exploitation style horror
joint, harkening back to the likes of The Hills Have Eyes.
This is where Cub gets vicious, bordering on mean spirited,
and this shift has turned off quite a few viewers over the film’s festival run.
With themes of power and control gone wrong woven in
throughout, coupled with gorgeous cinematography, for most of its run, Cub
is a brutal, exciting horror film. And while some have taken issue with this
turn, it’s really the ending that is the most problematic piece (aside from
some animal violence you know is coming, though is still going to churn
stomachs). Without going into too much detail, it’s definitely a head
scratcher, and falls victim to the fate of too many European horror films—it
simply doesn’t know when to quit, tacking on one ending after another. It
doesn’t totally ruin everything that came before, as in a movie like
Haute Tension, but it’s not a satisfactory way to wrap up a
movie.
Though it ends on its weakest note, Govaerts manages to make
Cub a compelling, well-paced horror film that will be most
appealing to devout genre heads. The plot is not particularly original, but the
film takes you on a dark, twisted ride full of terror, brutality, and ambiguity,
and that helps smooth over any rough patches. [Grade: B]
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