Treehouse   Starring: Dana Melanie, J. Michael Trautmann and Daniel Fredrick Distributor: Signature Entertainment RRP: £17.99 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 20 October 2014

After an official town Halloween party is called-off by the police, because some kids had gone missing, a college teen and his slightly younger insecure brother decide to make an arrangement with a friend and two girls to have their own little celebration in the woods. Bad move. When it seems no one else is going to turn up, they let off a couple of fireworks, one of which reveals a high treehouse. Inside, they find the frightened older sister of a little boy who was reported on the TV news as having gone missing. She is hiding from some... things in the trees waiting to attack. They soon realised they are trapped. The elder college teen sneaks out to get help, but when he doesn’t return, the couple left soon come to the conclusion there is only so long they can hold out...

I have not been able to avoid certain mixed reviews of this film. Most seem to think it’s pretty poor, and I have to agree with the majority in this instance. It’s a cheaply made movie with next to no plot. The indication early on is that the figures in the trees are supernatural. This is the only uncertainly which is likely to draw people. It soon turns into The Last House on the Left, and the underdogs inexplicably become Bonnie and Clyde (ah... without the bank robbing, of course). This eventuality is pretty unlikely when one was a victim under the protection of his older brother, and the other had several large pieces of glass pulled out of her feet.

What I did like better was the back story. The boy’s father had come back from a war a changed man. His elder brother had taken the blame for his younger and less street wise brother’s mistakes, and endured the often violent wrath which ensued. There were other moments, as well, too few and short to have much impact, but perhaps hinting at the fact this movie could have had a lot more heart. At times the acting of the two main characters is too precise, as if by trying to get it right they both inadvertently take too many steps into the realm of over-acting – particularly when attempting to look determined, which just made me laugh.

Okay, so there are loads of awful horror turkeys out there to trump this one, but the ‘root’ of the problem with Treehouse is that it creates little or no tension. You find yourself just not caring one way or the other what happens.

4

Ty Power