Storm Warning (2007)

OCTOBER 19, 2007

GENRE: SURVIVAL
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (SCREAMFEST LA)

Urban Legend and Valentine are both well shot slasher movies with somewhat generic scripts (though UL is a lot of fun, and remains my favorite of all the post-Scream slashers). It’s a shame that it took so long for director Jamie Blanks to find himself at the helm of a film with a script that measured up to his skills as a director, but Storm Warning was almost worth the wait (come on man, SIX years?!?!?!).

Blanks (who also composed and edited the film) has made a really lean film here. There are no subplots, no padding, no superfluous characters or incidents... nothing. A couple rents a boat, they get lost, meet up with some bad folks, and shit goes down. No, the film is hardly original in the story department, but the refreshing DIRECTNESS of it all makes it stick out above many of its fellow survival horror movies.

It’s also interesting to see this type of film in which very little violence/torture is inflicted on the protagonists. Blanks and writer Everett De Roche do a great job making the trio of bad guys totally reprehensible simply through the way they deal with each other and what they say, so when the tables turn, it’s completely justified, and we are not yet numb to the sight of people inflicting violence on one another.

A note for male viewers – this movie makes a strong case for the importance of foreplay, as it quite nastily details what could happen if you try to “steal home” without “testing the waters” first, if you catch my drift. Ouch. Between this and Hostel 2, it’s just a bad year for would-be rapists’ cocks.

Sadly, this film is coming straight to DVD from Dimension, but don’t let that worry you - Dimension is just releasing the film, they had nothing to do with its production. Highly recommended, and let’s hope we see another film from Blanks sooner rather than later.

What say you?