Barricade DVD Review
By: MattInRC
Here are three reasons why you shouldn't watch the WWE Studios horror flick Barricade: boring, boring, boring.- We guys always appreciate a good horror flick, even when there's no nudity or torture porn; every fan of the genre wants simply to be scared, to bend reality just enough so that we forget that what we're watching isn't real. To be honest, the genre is stuck in the mud, having played out every possible slasher scenario and every thriller treatment with mixed results. The WWE Studios straight-to-DVD Barricade is a perfect example of a genre that's been lost for some time, throwing every cliche into the mix, but failing at every turn to inspire any emotions from its audience.
Dr. Terrence Shade (Eric McCormack, Free Enterprise) has lost his wife Leah (Jodi Thompson, 2012) to a terrible accident, and a year later is struggling to care for his two children, Cynthia (Conner Dwelly, Once Upon a Time) and Jake (Ryan Grantham, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas). Beneath his cool exterior as a psychologist, Terrence is a psychotic wreck, wanting desperately to remember his previous life, but a slave to the medication which he ingests like candy. When the family visits Leah's favorite getaway, an old cabin in the woods, strange things begin to happen: shadowy people in the windows, rustling sounds in the attic, flickering house lights when power in the home fails. Soon, the children fall ill and everyone is convinced that something is out to do them in. Caught between a spiraling psychosis and a desire to protect his children at any price, Terrence must barricade the cabin and wait out the storm.
Barricade tries desperately to keep its audience engaged with every cheap horror cliche available, from quick edits, unfocused POV's, hand camera effects, people leaping into the screen, and the overly dramatic music which wears out its welcome early on. The trouble is that several of the genres don't really match the structure of the story, which focuses on Terrence's growing psychosis and the terrible choices he makes as a result. There's no need for Cynthia to appear possessed, or for Terrence to bury her rabbit in the snow with a giant cross, when none of these or the other half-dozen cliches have anything to do with Terrence's mental situation. Had the house really been possessed, or the sheriff who tries to save them is revealed as a mass murderer, then perhaps these anchors would have sufficed. Instead, they appear as cheap rest stops in the script, serving as nothing more than distractions to the more interesting story of Terrence himself. McCormack plays the role fairly well, never giving in to the second-rate environment; his mental breakdown makes for good theatre when newcomer Michaelbrent Collings keeps the script focused on Terrence; but far too often, it's these unrelated horror elements which poison any positive effect gained.
I'm mostly opposed to children in horror films, because they tend to come off as whiny Prisoners of War, forcing audiences to endure them while the hero saves the day. I do like Dwelly and Grantham here, but the script again fails to separate itself enough as either a thriller, slasher, or action flick for Director Andre Currie (Fido) to inspire anything other than fretful terror from them. On the positive side, Currie makes the most with his budget, creating a suitably creepy environment of off-tone colors for the cabin and Terrence's 'bottle effect' psychotic sequences; his camera work and the editing by Peter Forslund (Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Killer) are better than most underground Hollywood cheese.- Barricade doesn't really know what it wants to be: possession scare-fest, psychotic thriller, or lonely cabin action assault. It does none of these especially well, particularly at film's end; by that time, we're more interested in breaking down why this 75-minute sub-standard horror flick failed than discussing the effect of Terrence's psychosis on the story. Had Currie and Collings focused on that angle, Barricade could have been the most rewarding direct-to-DVD release I've seen in awhile. And while the final effect is not terrible, Barricade isn't overly interesting either. My suggestion is to skip this well-intentioned but ultimately flat film for something else. However, should you wish to punish yourself, the film is rated PG-13 for sexual situations and violence.
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