GET AWAY
A review by Jeremiah Kipp


Get Away



Written by and starring Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead; Hot Fuzz), Get Away is a horror-comedy that doesn’t tilt too far into being funny at the expense of slow building dread. In the vein of An American Werewolf in London, the laughs come from the enormous charm and likeability of the characters and their robust sense of humor, but Get Away clearly indicates the stakes are going to be high and the horror tropes are respected.

A British-Irish family (mom, dad, two kids) takes a vacation on a remote Swedish island of Svalta, right after the mainland shopkeeper warns them, “Don’t get on that ferry - don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Upon arriving at the island, the local community is waiting for them with cold glares and veiled threats that they will leave this place one way or another. Frost clearly loves his classic folk horror and slasher film references, and the characters are refreshingly self-aware about how remote holidays often feel like the setup to a horror movie.

Frost and co-star Aisling Bea are spot-on as the husband and wife duo, goofy and awkward and charming in equal measure, which helps because there’s more than a hint of “they get what’s coming to them” as they trod over the island’s creepy history of murder, quarantine and cannibalism - city folk outsiders wandering into the island’s Wicker Man-esque weekend festival.

Handsomely shot, with an eerie and atmospheric electronic music score by Hybrid - husband and wife duo Mike and Charlotte Truman - Get Away sustains its goofy off-kilter tone of anticipatory creepiness. Sometimes the mechanics of the plot get a bit heavy-handed (a bit too much time is spent detailing the mechanics of a community theater production that exists as clever exposition and a harbinger for dark things to come) but Get Away is never less than wholly engrossing, with the confidence to slowly, steadily march towards its inevitable third act.

It’d be understandable for viewers to worry that they’ll drop the ball or insufficiently deliver - but rest assured Get Away builds to a blood drenched slaughterhouse. And when the blades come out and blood starts spraying, it doesn’t quite go the way you’d expect. The body count is surprisingly high, and its fair to say not everyone dies in the order you’d anticipate. At a taut 86 minutes, here’s a movie that gleefully larks its way deep into project mayhem.


Jeremiah Kipp is a film director based in New York. He has written for Fangoria, Shock Cinema, Filmmaker Magazine and Slant Magazine.