Wither

Vittra - made in 2012 - was kicked out here in the States as WITHER. I caught it on Amazon Prime here in the US and it was a fun little ride.

This is basically Sweden's EVIL DEAD take and, while it's not the EVIL DEAD, it's very entertaining and keeps things interesting and bloody.  A group of friends heads to an abandoned home in the woods (far cleaner than the cabin in Evil Dead!) And, in this film it's another ancient evil up to no good - a sort of wood fairy spirit being who can take your soul just by looking into your eyes, turning you into an evil, monstrous creature.

This start of slowly, but ramp up into some rather fun, gory goings on. Sadly, the pace falters from time to time, but it's well worth sticking it out through some heavy dialogue and WTF? moments to get to more of the evil beings.

The F/X work is grand. Blood flows and awful things happen to the group as the evil is spread through some wicked bites and gross out blood spraying. Little touches here and there - like glowing, milky eyes - really set this film apart from some other Evil Dead "homage" movies I've seen since the original film came out. They are doing Evil Dead for sure, but they do the copy-cat with their own, gruesome touches.

The acting is rather good. Or, at least I think it is seeing as the film is in Swedish. It was language that came off sounding bitchy to me - not sure why.  Like everything that was said had a snarky tone to it. Interesting language.

There are some great shots like the one above that really play on that "something is creeping up on you" feeling. However, there are also some moments where I was thinking, "Hmmm...the house isn't THAT big. Wouldn't the other folks hear this guy and girl struggling and growling in the room six feet away?"  Those moments took me out of things for a minute, but the film isn't all that serious anyway, so I managed to let it go after a time.

All in all, WITHER was a fun ride that is well worth a viddy!