Mercy Falls – Review

Mercy Falls is set for a theatrical release on 1 September 2023 with digital following on 6th November 2023 courtesy of Bingo Films.

This tense and terrifying psychological thriller follows a tight-knit group of friends – Rhona (Lauren Lyle), Heather (Layla Kirk – Two Doors Down), Scott (James Watterson – Kirk), Donnie (Joe Rising – Casualty) and Andy (Eoin Sweeney) – who arrive in the Scottish Highlands in search of a long-lost family cabin… but their trip turns into a nightmare when a fatal accident leads to suspicion, bloody betrayal and brutal murder.

As they travel deeper into the wilderness their journey takes an unexpected turn when the group pick up hitchhiker Carla (Nicolette McKeown – Convergence) and bring her along for the ride… but it quickly becomes apparent that things aren’t quite what they seem…

Arriving at their destination with tensions building and love triangles forming, battle lines are drawn and things take a sinister turn. With revelations abound, the stakes grow higher and a ferocious fight for survival ensues… will anyone make it out alive?

Full of suspense and unrelenting gore, can you survive this twisted trip to Mercy Falls?

“Five avoid a psycho in Scotland”

5 “friends” go on holiday in Scotland to find a family holiday home that’s been left to one of them by her estranged father.

On the way they pass a hitchhiker who they ignore, always ominous in a horror movie.

They later meet a girl (the hitchhiker) at the pub and invite her along on their trek. Because of course you would.

Turns out girl’s a bit of a case, and starts picking them off one by one.

Will they find the cabin, will they survive long enough to enjoy it if they do?

There’s a lot to enjoy with Mercy Falls and a fair bit to scoff at.

So lets get the scoffing out of the way first.

The characters in this are confusing, a group of friends and/or lovers who don’t appear to actually like each other at all. They bicker and argue about weird things, at weird times and I found it difficult to understand why any of them were choosing to go anywhere together.

A main character who can’t remember where a cabin she’s been left by her estranged dad is, because he comes across a half dead horse and helped it be fully dead.

A hitchhiker who can be passed by a car whilst walking and arrive miles away at the same time as the car. The hitchhiking element is a wasted plot line, they could have made much more about the “you left me” side of it when the killing starts, or just had them come across her whilst trekking.

Nonsensical behaviour from most of the characters. Including inviting randoms on what ostensibly is a dangerous expedition, staring at things when they should be running from things, not particularly liking each other but still going on a mad journey. There’s a specific scene where they could have probably just easily untied a rope and possibly averted disaster but instead two of them just stand screaming/crying/looking confused for what seems like a week. Granted this annoyed me more than it should have, I was actually shouting at them.

Also, if you want any kind of sex scene, probably best putting it towards the beginning and not in a “we’re probably about to die, lets hide from the killer… Fancy a quickie?” moment.

The psycho killer wasn’t quite believable and by the end was essentially more Lara Croft than Lara Croft.

The premise was great but the overall story was a struggle to be in any way believable, had some scripting issues and wasn’t particularly suspenseful due to this but it just about keeps you interested, probably could have been trimmed a bit.

If I was making one of those “describe a film badly” posts I’d probably say “A Lara Croft cosplayer escapes from a mental hospital and kills a group of largely unlikeable idiots in beautiful Scotland.”

What’s good then?

Well, the cast do a great job, all of them work their roles for all they can and although the characters themselves are annoying, that’s how they’re written so top job!

The score is good, builds in when needed and blends everything nicely.

Some decent kills, great practical effects and half decent digital enhancements used sparingly where needed (I’m assuming the log was digital in parts, hands up if I’m mistaken but even that would prove my point)

Cinematography is lovely, Scotland’s beautiful scenery was used to its fullest. Night scenes were really well lit and you could see what was happening.

Mercy Falls stomps into the low budget “forest trip goes wrong” woods based thriller/horror genre and while there’s not much new ground to tread, it does so with it’s boots firmly laced.

Scotland looks like a lovely place to be killed and while the script is suspect at times, it largely kept me interested.

Mercy Falls is in cinemas now and arrives on digital on the 6th of November 2023.

Watch the trailer below: