Title: WTF! (2017)
Director: Peter Herro
Runtime: 80 minutes
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Three years ago, then nine-year-old Rachel was the only survivor of a brutal massacre. Now, it’s spring break, and her close friends all decide to go to a cabin in the woods for a party. A killer shows up and starts offing them one by one. That’s WTF! in a nutshell!
Sadly, it’s 2017, and the slasher genre is pretty much dead. I think the last true slasher we got was Most Likely to Die from 2015, which had high production values and a sweet costume, but was lacking in quality. So I was excited to explore my favorite sub-genre of horror with this release of WTF!.
I also mentioned Most Likely to Die for another reason: Perez Hilton was in it, and he’s in WTF! as well. He is the only name I reconized, though, and it’s more of a cameo than anything else. That said, the entire unknown cast does a fine job of protraying these horny twenty-somethings. We also get some ample nudity as everyone goes off to separate areas to get their sexy time on.
WTF! is Peter Herro’s first feature film, and he’s more than competent in the directors chair. The film has a fun flow, it never takes itself too seriously, and it is a bit reminiscent of the Friday the 13th reboot, with its little nods, and the humor. Herro also wrote the script so that might have made the task of directing it a bit easier as he was able to bring his own vision of the story to life. There is one scene involving a nail which has a really funny bit of dialogue that had me laughing out loud. The dialogue is so great that it ended up on my twitter feed (the mark of any good line of dialogue, of course)!
The film offers some pretty decent kills. There’s nothing overly original, but some felt more like homages to other slasher films. There’s one that reminded me of the axe scene in – again – the Friday the 13th reboot. Really, if you enjoyed that reboot, you’ll probably enjoy WTF!. I was unable to tell if the gore here was practical effects, or CGI, but either way it looks realistic, and there’s a decent amount of bloodshed once the film starts offing its cast.
If there’s one big flaw for WTF! it comes in at the end, with the big reveal of the killer. I actually had to rewatch the last fifteen minutes so that I could better wrap my head around it all. It left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, to be honest. I didn’t give much thought to who the killer might be while watching, but the reveal still felt a bit cheap, while at the same time, it felt like a nod to some other films that I won’t name to avoid spoilers.
WTF! is yet another independent horror offering from Brain Damage Films that’s fun enough to get my full recommendation. It’s not wholly original, or new, but it’s from a sub-genre I love, and the director clearly shares my passion. Herro puts in enough little nods to other films from the sub-genre that slasher fans will surely get a kick out of WTF!. This one releases on all major Video-on-Demand platforms, and on DVD exclusively from Amazon MOD on August 1st, 2017.
WTF! (2017) is available digitally August 1st, 2017 on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Vimeo, Xbox, Steam, Vudu, and YouTube. It is also available on DVD exclusively on Amazon MOD on August 1st, 2017. Cinefessions was provided a digital copy of WTF! for review purposes by Midnight Releasing.
Chris was raised on horror films, which gave him a deep love for the genre, especially its most quirky and offbeat titles (like A Nightmare on Elm Street 2). This love quickly turned into an obsession for cinema in 1997, when he decided he needed to see every major theatrical release. Video games (JRPGs), reading (anything but fantasy), and reality television (Survivor) are just some of his other passions. He’s been with Cinefessions since 2013, and has been writing reviews all over the internet for the past twelve years.
