Shrooms
By Cory Peynado, Blockbuster.co.uk

Well I guess the title says it all really. Who can save you when your stuck in the woods, your friends and acquaintances are dropping like flies and everything you see is a possible hallucination? Nothing you can do really except pay homage to the director for doing a good job and making you feel like the walls really are closing in.

Now ofcourse, being the sweet young innocent preacher's son that I am, I’m not savvy to things like drugs and alcohol and the like but apparently swallowing one of these different types of mushrooms can have some pretty spurious effects; ala visions of the future, being shown your worst fears, experiencing major paranoia and pretty much having your mind transported into the freakin fourth dimension.

Fortunately this is a feeling that our naïve young protagonists are desperate to embrace, and under the leadership of Jake (Jack Huston), who has promised them a literal trip of a lifetime, they head out into the woods of Ireland to find some of natures finest.

When they set out they are only given one warning, beware the Deaths Head mushroom. This nasty fellow is a fungi that, according to legend allows you to speak with the dead, demonstrate uncontrollable ferocity, shape-shifting as well as the supernatural ability of premonition. The catch being that all of these abilities will be bestowed upon anyone who eats the mushroom and does not have it shut down their heart, lungs and kidneys.

Their trip is about to turn into a bad one, in both ways, as one of the group makes the mistake of eating one of these dreaded fungi, and starts seeing the future... a future that involves a figure cloaked in black stalking and killing her friends one by one.

Strongly acted throughout, particularly by charismatic Huston and leading lady Haun, who handles the bulk of the drama, the movie is bristling with restless energy. It’s inventive, ambitious and, though not without humour is mercifully free of irony and sincere in its desire to scare.

Shrooms isn’t anything that will be seen as amazingly new and original but it is an entertaining film that can be enjoyed by both casual and serious horror fans. Despite a story that seems all too familiar it provides some good laughs and never takes itself too seriously. I say keep em coming.