Running a horror movie website for as long as I have it sometimes feels more like a chore than an actual ode to the genre I truly love. That's why, after seeing so many flicks of varying quality, it's a great surprise when a movie comes along that takes what amounts to a typical slasher movie premise and adds enough of its own identity to work better than it should. The Undertow turned out to be such an effort as I'd been full and ready to dismiss it as just another "for hire" film from Eric Stanze and his Wicked Pixel cohorts under the Sub Rosa Extreme label - especially when I Spit On Your Corpse, I Piss On Your Grave (which just sounds awful from title alone and has a pretty vile trailer as well) is one of their previous contributions.

When we first catch-up with Eli (Jason Christ) and a group of his friends they are on the way to a small hillbilly town in the middle of nowhere in order to have a weekend of camping as well as going on a "float" (or canoeing) trip. Along the way they talk about a local legend about "The Boy", who is apparently a murderous inbred that stalks the area. They also end-up being pulled over by a local deputy who decides to dump out their cooler of beer as well as call them as many names as he can. Yeah, he's the welcoming sort.

This stiff greeting to the area continues once they head to the general store for supplies when patrons and employees alike give them the cold shoulder as well as warn them that they really shouldn't be hanging around. Even the Mayor's daughter, Billie (Trudy Bequette) seems to be concerned for their safety. Of course, they maybe should have listened since the Mayor has decided that anyone who doesn't live in the town is "impure" and has a habit of unleashing his mongoloid son on such people.

And what an imposing figure that son is. Sporting a pillowcase over his head (shades of The Town That Dreaded Sundown here with a little slice of the second Friday The 13th movie) and wearing bloodstained overalls, "The Boy", or Dewey as Billie calls him, only knows a life of killing and abuse as he's been beaten since childhood by good old dad to do his bidding. He's as strong as an Ox, likes to use his hands as battering rams, and has his sights set on our outsider travelers.

For the rest of The Undertow, writer-director Jeremy Wallace kills off his cast members one-by-bloody-one as people have their heads crushed, are beaten to death, have limbs removed and, in the case of co-star Emily Haack, are disembowelled. And while it might take about two-thirds of the film's running time to get there, things are done with more style than most shoestring budgeted slashers are as Wallace sets-up various shots using interesting angles and keeps his camera moving - even though early on it gets distracting when they first pull into the general store, it thankfully calms down from there.

Another thing that makes this stand-out from the pack is the fact that almost all of the actors on hand bring a lot more skill to their roles than this level of production usually allows for. Our victims are well enough defined and show enough fear to be convincing and our killer (played by Doc Brown) is lumbering enough to make for a memorable figurehead to it all. The only real complaint I have is that a lot of the dialogue here feels to be improvised and my main suspicion comes during one character's recalling of a canoe accident that comes across as more silly than anything.

If you're looking for an entertaining throwback to old school 70's horror and early 80's slashers, then you'll get more than enough satisfaction from The Undertow. It delivers some decent looking gore (even though they're dwelled on a bit too much in close-ups), is steadily made, and ends on a pretty brutal note. It's just more proof that the Wicked Pixel gang is one of the better independent companies out there and that they fully understand what it takes to make an effective genre picture. (Chris Hartley, 10/27/07)

Directed By: Jeremy Wallace.
Written By: Jeremy Wallace.

Starring: Jason Christ, Julie Farrar, Joseph Palermo, Trudy Bequette.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: Due to being shot on, what looks like, digital video the transfer here does suffer from a fair bit of jagginess around the edges. Other than that what's on display here is perfectly acceptable as colours are solid and the picture is clean. I've definitely seen a lot worse looking indie DVD releases.

Extras: There's an alright selection of extras on the disc as we get a still gallery, about twenty minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, a blooper reel, some deleted scenes that were best left that way, a trailer gallery (Wallace's other directorial effort The Christmas Season Massacre sure looks like goofy fun), and a text bio for Sub Rosa.