Fear Cabin: The Last Weekend of Summer does not simply toy with expectations with a horror-cum-cabin fright fest. Instead, it completely dismantles and excitingly remixes events, creating a wild ride that goes full throttle from beginning to end.
A motley crew of friends head out to a remote cabin in the woods for a weekend of fun, drinking and standard debaucheries; however, the trip soon turns far from ordinary when the group begins to experience a world of terror as an unexpected guest joins them.
Director Brian Krainson delivers a pure, bone-chilling tale that offers a lineup of assorted frights, from ghouls and entities that create bumps in the night, all the way to displays of witchcraft and devilry that mingle to summon a dense, sinister atmosphere that unleashes bouts of havoc throughout the deadly weekend trip. Ultimately, the film’s acts of portrayed evil acts as pathways for the various motifs to rip through and percolate the unsettling rhetoric. Whilst the film’s spirit is rife with a nexus of intricate themes such as survival, isolation and fragility amidst moments of ghostly fear and so forth, what Fear Cabin: The Last Weekend of Summer ensures is that it does not become excessively heavy with all of its dense threads.
Although the jolting horror antics take centre stage throughout the film, Krainson infuses touches of light humour and strong writing to balance the grave velocity of what is at play throughout the narrative. It’s for this reason that the characters remain multidimensional rather than just channels for horror to seep through. Accordingly, the film builds upon the robust character arcs that surface from the group’s dynamic, with the escalating sense of panic and dread fueling waves of tension as the reality of the horrifying situation evolves and reaches a menacing peak.
The suspenseful flow of mystery is made all the more ominous on account of the cabin setting, which almost becomes a character within itself. The quiet backdrop of a rural cabin immediately forbodes in response to how the solitude of isolation can highlight an uneasy hostility. For instance, as the haunting antics unravel, the group grapple with the vulnerability that such a remote setting in tune with nature and all of its dark history provides. There is no immediate safety net outside of a typical suburban brick-and-mortar, and classically (but nevertheless still spine-tinglingly sinister), no one can hear you scream!
Fear Cabin: The Last Weekend of Summer is a fresh take on a beloved haunted cabin story that pays homage to the quintessential beauty of eerie, lodge-based horror but with a distinct, innovative flair that speaks to Krainson’s stellar filmmaking capacities. The film’s nuanced approach has great fun in pulling the plug and wiping away what we expect, alternatively delivering high-impact, unexpected thrills that both provide ample shrieks as we jump during startling moments, as well as experience lingering spells of dread and horror, akin to a troubled haunting that has the ability to stand the test of time.
You can catch the film Friday 27th September at this years festival, tickets here!
