Husk 2010 - REVIEW

I'm the type of person that will watch a film and then hit all the popular sites to see how it was received by everyone else. Believe me when I say that this does not affect my take on it whatsoever. If I like it, I'm not afraid to say so and if I hate it, I'm not afraid to say so. Of course as usual, not everyone is going to agree with my opinions and that's ok. Lord knows I don't agree with everyone else all the time either. But you can bet, once I write it, I stand by it no matter the shit storm that rains down and boy have I weathered some shit storms.

When a murder of crows smash into their car windshield, a group of young friends are forced to abandon the vehicle, leaving them stranded beside a desolate cornfield. Hidden deep within the cornfield they find a crumbling farmhouse – but they soon discover that instead of a sanctuary, the house is actually the center of a terrifying supernatural ritual that they are about to become a part of.

C.J. Thomason, Wes Chatham, and Devon Graye lead this testosterone filled cast and they do a pretty good job at it. I remember Thomason from his role on Harper's Island, which freaking ROCKED, so there was no surprise there that he gave a good performance. I can't really say that I've seen much work by the others. Graye has done a lot of TV work and Chatham worked with a pretty high profile cast in In the Valley of Elah so they all have fairly impressive resumes. The loan female of the bunch, Tammin Sursok, held her own against the guys and pulled off some pretty notable scenes of her own.

I've read a lot of bad press on this film. Some of it I agree with but some of it I don't. While I did take issues with a few things, I didn't think Husk was all that bad. I thought the premise, while done many times over, was a pretty good base to build off of. Director Brett Simmons adds a few new things to the mix but it's hard to get into without spoiling the story. So I'll just say, you gotta watch it to find out.

The down side is that this film has caught the same plague as many others before it being that it's a bit cliche. You're given a cast of five pretty people thrown into something "otherworldly" and now they have to get out. Character wise we're given the usual suspects to root for... the jock, the geek, the pretty girl and the craven. None of these characters are explored too deeply so it is a little hard to pick one to cheer on. However, I have a little crush on Thomason so I was secretly going for him anyway. The dialogue gets a bit stiff in places and there are some crazy out there things that happen without explanation. Usually, I hate that but it didn't bother me all that much here. I can't quite put my finger on it but there was just something about it that drew me in. Maybe it was the creepy scarecrows that had me cringing a little at times or maybe it was just Thomason. Who knows. I didn't hate this film but I didn't love it either. It just kinda fell into the middle for me. Would I watch it again? Yes because it was effective enough to entertain me. Would I recommend it? Yes because I would hope that at least a few see it the same way I did.