I’ll never turn down the opportunity to watch and review a slasher flick. Ever. It’s my favorite genre of horror and I’m always delighted when I find a gem hidden among the dozens of other titles in this category. Writer, director, producer Peter Herro must share the same fanaticism as me because he decided to tackle a slasher story with his feature length debut, WTF! I started my viewing of WTF! with a high level of praise and enjoyment because it starts off with a bang, bloodshed and a look at the survivor after the massacre is over. This is a rarity in horror films and I thought I was about to be treated to a story that goes off the rails and collides into original and invigorating content. Unfortunately, Herro’s film becomes pretty cut and paste after that and it lost that terrific sense of wonder that it started with.
College graduation is right on the horizon for a group of good looking friends. Seriously, everyone is so pretty in WTF! In what could be their last outing before going their separate ways, the group of friends head out to a secluded cabin in the woods for relaxation, partying, sex… and death! One of the friends, Rachel, survived a brutal massacre three years ago and it looks like history is about to repeat itself. With no cell phone service and civilization being miles away, an intruder makes his way through the cabin, slaughtering everyone in his path. Has the previous killer returned from the grave to take another stab at Rachel? Is it a copycat killer? Is it some random psycho? Find out in Peter Herro’s WTF! It’s co-written by Christopher Centanni and Adam Buchalter, produced by Kyle Zinger, Steve Parker and Jody Wheeler, and features cinematographer by Justin Kemper and editing by Steve Parker and Michael Dooley.
WTF! stars Callie Ott, Nicholas James Reilly, Andrea Hunt, Benjamin Norris, Sarah Agor, Johnny James Fiore, Adam Foster and Perez Hilton. While the cast did a great job as a whole, I found three casting choices to be particularly interesting. First, world recognized gossip blogger Perez Hilton is building quite the resume as a horror actor. Years ago he briefly appeared in Campfire Stories and Sharknado 2, last year he starred in Most Likely to Die, and now he has a principal role in WTF! I wonder what is spurring his love for horror films. Then, I was thrilled to see Sarah Agor in this flick since she was one of my favorite contestants competing on VH1’s reality series “Scream Queens.” Having previously appeared in Hatchet II, Blood Canvas and Do You See Me, Agor is one of the few actresses to take the platform the show gave her and really run with it. And I must say that she has improved as an actress over the years! Lastly, when I saw Andrea Hunt on screen for the first time in WTF!, I immediately thought ‘she looks like Paris Hilton. she’s just in this to be sexy and die naked,’ but I’m happy to say Ms. Hunt has the acting chops to deliver a worthwhile performance.
With all that out of the way, let me get down to the nitty-gritty of why WTF! was a little bit of a let down and only a mildly entertaining slasher. A common occurrence in this genre, WTF! is absolutely predictable in nature and you’ll know exactly how this one is going to turn out as soon as the group of friends get to the cabin. Sure, there’s sex, secrets and humor to spruce up the time building up to the climax, but the predictability becomes monotony when the first death in this massacre doesn’t happen until about 45 minutes into the movie. There needed to be something more in that 45 minute space of time to keep an audience interested and I, as a watcher and reviewer, started to tune out. WTF! is also infused with a number of horror stereotypes that I wish would die off already. No cell phone service, tripping over nothing and falling, bad decision making skills when it comes to sleuthing and escaping. These are all staples of tradition slasher films, but in 2017 I’d hope that characters wouldn’t be so stupid. If you’re not going to produce a groundbreaking film like those we saw in the 80’s and 90’s, don’t try to be traditional. Try to be modern. Try to do something new, something the audience hasn’t seen a million times already.
The kill sequences aren’t particularly interesting, either, but the blood looked realistic and the body count was high. I know I’m being incredibly hard on WTF! but the fact is… I still sort of liked it! As I mentioned above, I have a soft spot for slashers and this one is pretty decent when you consider all the crap floating around out there. It’s a standard hack-and-slash story with attempts at twists, but it was a high caliber production with a talented lead and supporting cast. It even contains a little bit of comedy and that often came from Sarah Agor as Lisa. Really, all this one was missing is a better story. I truly believe this could have been a contender if the writers really pushed their boundaries as creators and took some risks with the script. Does this one have mystery? Yeah. Does it have gore? Yeah. Is it low budget? No. But, it’s still missing an important piece that would have set it apart from the pack – more originality than nostalgia, more suspense than predictability. I think slasher enthusiasts such as myself could get a kick out of this one and I can’t think of any other “cabin in the woods” movie that’s better than this one right now. A mixed bag of treats, Peter Herro’s WTF! isn’t a hidden gem, but it’s far from a wasted opportunity. Peep the trailer online and see if this could be up your ally. Final Score: 6 out of 10.
