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When the bank he's just making a transaction at is robbed and by sheer
coincidence veteran Rex (Ben O'Toole) gets his hands on a gun, he does the
heroic thing and fights back - if not out of pure selflessness but to
impress Maddy (Ashlee Lollback), the bank teller he has long had a crush
on. Unfortunately, he goes a little overboard there and accidently causes
the death of a security officer, which leads to an 8 year stretch in
prison for manslaughter, plus Maddy doesn't want to have anything to do
with him anymore. So once out, Rex decides to skip the country for Finland
- where he's abducted as soon as he touches ground, and ultimately he
wakes up hanging from the ceiling with one of his legs amputated, without
any idea of how or why he got there. And the only person he has to talk to
for the longest time is - his imaginary self, who is a more sarcastic
version of himself and most probably the result of PTSD from Afghanistan.
He's not always Rex's nicest self to be sure, but also a cheerleader
should the situation be hopeless. Eventually, he finds out he's the
prisoner of a deranged family (led by Caroline Craig and Matthew
Sunderland) who have turned to kidnapping and eating humans since one of
their sons (Caleb Enoka) has turned out to be an incorrigible cannibal,
and they have pretty much devoured tourists by the dozen before getting
their hands on Rex. But there's hope for Rex, Alia (Meg Fraser), daughter
of the house who has never taken to the family's diet and is thus treated
like dirt by the others. She has tried to escape a dozen of times, without
success - but she sees something in Rex that might change her fate. Then
again, can Rex do much against a family of hardened cannibals having to
relie on just one leg ... Even if the synopsis of this movie
sounds very grim, and its references to The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre seem very deliberate, this is actually a
pretty funny film (provided you've got a macabre sense of humour of
course), as it finds the irony in many exaggerated genre tropes, but
doesn't veer off into just broad comedy but also honours its horror roots
- for a pretty hilarious mix of suspense, shocks and laughs, thanks not
only to a clever script but also a horror-savvy and atmosphere heavy
direction, and a solid cast that plays it straight - to comical effect.
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