Review: Trespassers (2006)

Director: Ian McCrudden | 83 minutes | horror | Actors: Michelle Borth, Joleigh Fioreavanti, Alex Feldman, Kaiwi Lyman, Jon Ada, Melissa Davis, Marc Jozefowicz, Clayton Rohner

Teenage Colin decides to travel after his brother with four of his friends to Punto Abre Ojos (point of the open eyes) to enjoy a nice, relaxed camping and beach holiday. However, when they arrive at this largely deserted but nevertheless beautifully situated location, they only encounter the car and the deserted tent camp of Colin’s brother and his friends. When the quintet finds a number of gnawed skeletons in the hills shortly afterwards, it appears that in reality this place is perhaps not as idyllic as one might assume at first sight.

At first glance, the story that underlies ‘Trespassers’ seems to point to another mediocre and cheap teen horror film of which easily go thirteen in a dozen. However, this is only partly true. The story surrounding the place Punto Abre Ojos, which explains why this place is ravaged by evil and wandering cannibalistic zombies, is quite original and in storytelling transcends the level found in films such as ‘Scream’ or ‘I Know What You Did’. Last Summer ‘is on display. At first the film seems to get off to a bit too slow, but the makers still manage to build up the tension well and surprise the viewer every now and then with a few successful shock effects. The atrocities in this movie largely take place off-screen and are generally not portrayed too explicitly. The makers are more based on suggestion and leave the coloring of the unsavory details largely to the viewer. The (deliberately) messy way of filming (shaking camera, blurry image) further ensures a high level of reality.

Despite this, ‘Trespassers’ ultimately did not become a film that will really stand out from the deluge of horror releases with which the viewer is inundated today. The main point of criticism is that the film is too predictable in many areas and – with the exception of the story behind the presented legend – still adheres too much to the well-known pattern. The order in which the main characters fall prey to the evil forces that plague them is very easy to predict for the seasoned horror fanatic (and even less adept viewers in the genre). The end of the film is not exactly strong either. Rather than ending with a witty twist, you get the impression that the film is being bluntly cut short due to a lack of further inspiration or due to a time limit. In the end, ‘Trespassers’ did not become a really bad film, but the print shows too many flaws to really stand out among the mountain of good and less good releases that now tower above horror land. Too bad, because the film certainly contains promising moments. You get the impression that a slightly better cast and a somewhat more original script could have led to a very interesting horror work.