Rage – Review

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A melding of The Wicker Man with Midsommar via the The vvitch with a sprinkling of The Blair Witch for good measure.

A holiday turns horrifying in Rage, a disturbingly dark and brutal horror from award- winning South African director Jaco Bouwer (Gaia), which lands on UK digital today courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films.

When a group of friends embark on their dream coastal break to attend the ultimate rave in an off-grid town, they get a fear-filled awakening as their night of raging becomes their worst nightmare…

As their experiences become weirder and weirder, they release that they’ve been drugged and dragged into a dark, shocking, deadly ritual.

Still from the Film RAGE showing a nightclub scene of a shirtless man dancing
Rager!

The film begins with one of the best non horror jump scares I’ve had the pleasure of feeling silly jumping to, then we see a group of frankly quite unlikeable people raving, with a voiceover and splash graphics on screen telling us who they are. Looking back, this intro doesn’t match the rest of the film at all. It made me think of 1999’s GO tonally, and this film turns out to be, thankfully much much darker than that.

What we are actually treated to is a fairly by the numbers teenagers meet small town weirdness horror film, with the required bits all in there. Visit to a shop run by a mysterious/spooky/weird old person who says something that everyone overlooks but is a clear portent of doom? Check! Muddy/black water in the pipes? Check! (well it’s actually a pretty funny toilet scene but I’m giving it). An odd/inbred/worrying local handyperson? Check! Lots of weird shit hanging off and on walls as decoration? Check! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… MASS HYSTERIA!? Check! (well at least the first bit).

This film has all of the things you’d expect to see in a trip gone wrong horror, and it uses them all pretty successfully.

scary old lady shop owner
Mysterious/spooky/weird old person? Check!

So the group have all clearly been drugged at the rave they were at, they leave and are helped to where they are staying by a couple who appear to be wearing some kind of first aider uniform or something akin to a work uniform anyway. They just appear and there’s no explanation about why they’re there, it’s just strange but not in a way that’s supposed to be strange, more in a not very well written way strange. Anyway, they’re not particularly important but it’s just odd.

These people take our gang to their digs in a slightly confusing scene where the woman of the couple kind of warns them they shouldn’t be there, but she’s in the car and then outside of the car in a cut that made me think there was more than one woman. I got confused, but anyway lets carry on.

There’s flashbacks to the rave, as one of our gang wakes up wrapped in a rug with cocks drawn on his face. Yeah, I did say they weren’t particularly likeable people earlier didn’t I?

They go to the local shop for local people and meet an old? lady who makes Tubbs Tattsyrup look like Mrs Brady. Really nicely done, weird as all hell scene this. Adds to the overall WTF! feeling that’s slowly building.

scared looking character still

They go back to the house they’re staying at, the toilet gets blocked so a handyman comes out, then they go to the beach and the handyman goes with them, because of course he would. Then basically our gang start getting offed one by one.

The local cult has got them lined up to be used as sacrifice to the sun god, and all good sacrifices need their brain pans drilling. The drugs that have been used come back into play which makes the whole “is this real or in my mind” thing join the mix beautifully.

What ensues is good old fashioned, avoid the local loony stuff. The teenage gang still seem fine talking about inane stuff while they’re at risk of being unalived at any second and of course there’s time for a spot of sex, of course there is. The murdered, brain drilled kids seem to come back to life too or did they, was this more drug induced weirdness?

The final girl is, as all good final girls should be, a bit of an idiot when it comes to survival decision making and so her bid to be final girl does have its ups and downs.

Overall I really enjoyed this film. It has all of the good parts of a backwoods trip gone wrong horror. The script is a little odd at times, although “guys this is fucking insane, how is she alive?” did sum up beautifully what I was thinking at one point.

The cast all do a great job keeping the tension going and building the air of ominous foreboding.

This is folk horror at it’s finest, a melding of The Wicker Man with Midsommar via the The vvitch, with a sprinkling of The Blair Witch for good measure.

It features some beautiful cinematography and lighting and the audio is good too, with everyone being clear when they speak (which is getting more rare these days.)

It left me with questions, which I quite liked, although one of the questions was, was the couple at the end the couple from the beginning? I look forward to picking this one up and having another watch.

Really good folk horror that will make you never want to have the choice of left, right or centre.

Oh, and Don’t do drugs kids!

RAGE is available On UK digital 7 August 2023 from Reel 2 Reel Films

Watch the trailer below

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