Review of The Shortcut (2009) by Jason D — 29 Sep 2009

The Shortcut (produced under Adam Sandler's new Scary Madison production company) is the story of the new kid in town (Andrew Seeley) who finds out about the town's most feared place, a shortcut from the local elementary school, where a supposedly evil old man (Raymond J.

Barry) lives. Many people think he's killed teens before, not to mention just about every dog in town. When Seeley's younger, troubled brother goes through the shortcut, gets threatened by the old man, and sees a dog corpse, he tells his older brother, who gathers an assortment of friends and associates (including his dream girl, 30 Rock's Katrina Bowden).

With The Shortcut, I was almost expecting a terrible movie, especially whenever anyone tries to do PG-13 Horror, which for the most part is a joke. In all actuality, The Shortcut is a well made (very high quality mainstream looking), well acted (surprisingly), well plotted story, and good direction from Nicholaus (Grandma's Boy) Goossen though I think he should stick with doing comedies.

Is it scary? Oh heavens, no. In fact, the first half of the film was like watching the old school Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark TV shows. The cast is likable for the most part, and the story takes a kiddy-friendly stance that surprisingly (honestly, I was very surprised) dark turn, leading to a violent and grim last 20-25 minutes, which something like an R-rated I Know What You Did Last Summer couldn't achieve.

Overall, The Shortcut exceeded my expectations and delivered a decent movie. Decent horror movie...not so much, but good try.