Detour (2009)

So much average

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Detour would be a very good horror movie if it would not suggest typical American horror concept. For any horror movie fan it is obvious mix of few, well known titles. For me the suggestion goes to Texas Chainsaw and Hills have eyes. It is Norwegian-Swedish language movie, with good cast and quality production. Unlike most of the Scandinavian horror movies which are slow, this one is fast and tense, but very predictable. The plot have those well known elements which are typical: scary night, abandoned gas house with bunch of abandoned cars, turning to the nowhere road, abandoned mansion, crazy family, torture with recording, helping policeman turning to be a bad guy, victim running through wood... There is a lot of flaws, but in general it is not so bad, as many horror movies today seems to copy each other or strongly lay on some of the famous titles. What disappoints me is the elimination of bad guys that looked too easy, and all of the positive characters stayed alive (even we like them), except one fellow who acts as a collateral here. So, nothing smart or new here, too predictable, yet more fast than typical Scandinavian horror.

Severin Eskeland made a lot of shorts but this is his first full feature and it is not that bad at all but their are a few problems. If you think you will see a splatter flick or a slasher then you better leave it on the shelves but if you want some suspense turning into a mess then this is for you. It clocks in at 77 minutes but still it takes a while before things really go wrong. Some things you can see coming from miles away, the story about the cop, who is the son of the elder couple at the abandoned house,...but somehow I kept watching. There is no gore and not that much of the red stuff so many will hate it for that but I guess Severin will learn from his mistakes and is a name to watch out for.

It's actually harder finding this movie with its English title (Detour), then finding the hiding place of Santa Clause. Seriously though, this little slasher movie is pretty decent. It's straight from beginning to finish and delivers on its premise. Of course you have to suspend your disbelieve here and there, but then again there's almost no movie out there, who doesn't ask that from you.What I liked, was the fact, that it stayed true to its premise and was mean and lean. Not too much and not too little. You know what you are letting yourself into, when you rent/watch this movie. It's low budget and has quite a few flaws of course. It's up to you, if you like those movies or not ... if you do, give it a try!

This movie is awesome. Plain forward good kicking' entertainment. Lot's of the horror elements you like to see, makes the chills go down your neck, and then spooks and shakes you out of your mind. Some nail popping', gimp kicking', old hag busting' action! A couple is driving from Norway to Sweden to get some cheap booze. They get car trouble in the deep woods and need to seek assistance at the nearest house. Well this is where the fun begins. The protagonist have to show what shes made of when battling man pigs and other dangers to save the day (Love a good female hero!). She has a awesome boyfriend, and it's very enjoyable to see the flirt romantic scenes with the two of them. It's real cozy before all hell breaks loose. So if you want to see a straight "cut the crap" forward good entertaining horror thriller, "Snarveien(Detour)" is the way to go. Is by far one of the best movies from Norwegian cinema, cause of it's strong acting (this is unlike Norwegian film), great twist ridden script and flawless directing Enjoi!