Woodyanders Vicious hoodlum David (a marvelously ruthless portrayal by Andy Serkis) and his bumbling wimp brother Peter (ably played to the sniveling hilt by Reece Shearsmith) decide to abduct Tracey (a fabulously feisty performance by Jennifer Ellison), who's the abrasive and foul-mouthed daughter of a powerful mobster. However, things don't go as smoothly as planned.Writer/director Paul Andrew Williams keeps the entertainingly off-center story moving along at a zippy pace, mines lots of laughs from a wickedly funny sense of pitch-black humor, delivers a few dandy and surprising macabre twists, and tops everything off with a handy helping of excessively gruesome gore. Serkis and Shearsmith display a winningly spiky chemistry as a pair of radically contrasting siblings; their spiky rat-tat-tat-tat sarcastic exchanges are an absolute hoot to behold. Steven O'Connell also excels as hopelessly inept bag man Andrew while Doug Bradley has a nice bit as a suspicious villager and Steven Beroff pops up in a cracking cameo at the very end. The sharp cinematography by Christopher Ross makes inspired use of the widescreen format. Laura Rossi's jaunty barnstorming score hits the spirited spot. A good'n'ghoulish blast.

Maz Murdoch (asda-man) The Cottage always appealed to me. I saw that it was a British horror-comedy and no one does horror-comedy quite like us Brits, given the track record of greats such as, Severance and Shaun of the Dead. It also stars Reece Shearsmith whom I have loved from the wonderful TV series, Psychoville and it's a slasher! What's not to like? Why, from the looks of the reviews it looked like there was a lot not to like, so I held off from buying it for a while. However, when I saw it for a couple of quid in a wonderfully cheap DVD shop in Blackpool I thought that there was nothing to lose. There wasn't. Whilst it doesn't quite reach the heights of the horror-comedy genius from Shaun of the Dead or Severance, I think I could safely say that it's as good as the under-rated zomedy, Cockneys Vs Zombies.The Cottage has a great set-up with two bumbling brothers, shoddily staging a kidnapping with feisty Jennifer Ellison. I thought that it was a much more original set-up for a slasher, rather than the tired old kids going on holiday to abandoned cottage. In fact, the slasher element doesn't entirely come into play until about halfway in, but there's no need to worry because like Severance, the 'non-horror half' is by no means less entertaining. It's full of funny banter and fantastic characters who you'll feel sad to see go. I especially enjoyed Reece Shearsmith's cowardly idiot and Steven O' Donnell's even bigger idiot who has some seriously funny lines to say. Doug Bradley's came could've been better, but it's fantastic that he's in it.Things do get especially interesting when a deformed serial-killing farmer is hilariously introduced out of nowhere. I think most films would benefit from a character like this appearing halfway through. This is an obvious pastiche from those wonderful 80's slasher films where a deformed lunatic bumps everyone off. In fact, The Cottage has a great 80's horror vibe throughout which I enjoyed immensely and so should every other horror fan. To top it off the death scenes a humorously over-the-top and great fun. But the reason this slasher works so well is because of its great characters and incredibly witty screenplay. A lot of people say that the humour doesn't work, but for me it did. Although predictable at times, it was still directed with energy to ensure ceasing any dull moments.Yes the quote on the back of the DVD saying that it's the horror event of 2008 is way over the top, considering that 2008 is the year that graced Eden Lake, Let the Right One In and Martyrs to the screen (all three in my top 10 horror films of all time). Nevertheless, The Cottage is way better than you'd expect, given the unfair criticism the film gets. It's a fun, fast, funny and often thrilling ride that can be watched over and over again. I think that it's even a little bit better than Hatchet!

tmccull52 "The Cottage" isn't going to win any major motion picture awards, but I have to admit, it was more entertaining than I thought it would be.A darkly humorous slasher flick that doesn't take itself too seriously. it's worth seeing if you're looking for an amusing diversion. I've yet to see Andy Serkis turn in a sub-par performance in any film he's appeared in, and he does not disappoint in his portrayal as David, one of a pair of brothers who have kidnapped the daughter of a criminal kingpin. Reece Shearsmith, who plays the other brother, Peter, also gives a decent performance, particularly in the scenes where he interacts with the kidnapping victim, Tracy.For me, Jennifer Ellison's turn as Tracy made the movie. Profane, brassy, and sarcastic as Hell, she gives her abductors all that they can handle, particularly Peter, and then some. If there was one character in the movie that I was rooting for to survive the eventual massacre, it was her. Alas, she was slain by the hideously disfigured serial killer, known only as the Farmer about three quarters of the way through the movie."The Cottage" is gory enough for fans of slash and hack films, and it definitely has it's humorous moments. If you're looking for pure, unrelenting horror like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", this may not be your movie. But if you're not terribly fussy, you may just find this to be a worthwhile film.

Greg Over the past few months, we have had the embarrassing privilege of discovering some fairly recent but overlooked horror films. Our 'privilege' comes in the form of the entertainment that each of these films brought to the screening. Our 'embarrassment' is in how we missed these titles on their initial release.Titles such as The Lovely Ones and Dream Home have helped restore our faith in the horror genre and nails to the cross the idea that there are indeed good horror films out there – you just have to find them.The recent addition to our 'how did I miss this?' list goes to Paul Andrew Williams' The Cottage. Released in 2009, The Cottage stars Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith and Jennifer Ellison and surrounds a kidnapping that goes to pot when a deformed and psychopathic farmer takes offense to the kidnappers holding up near his rural farm.Reminding us of From Dusk Till Dawn, the film is almost two completely different stories sewn together seamlessly by a plot development. The opening chapters of The Cottage play heavily on the humor of brothers David and Peter (Serkis and Shearsmith) and we watch as these two fumble and bumble their way towards an expected ransom demand of $100,000 pounds for the return of captured Tracey (Ellison).But a series of events soon lead Peter and Tracey to open a trap door in the farm kitchen which seems to bring with it a mutated farmer who enjoys collecting both family photographs and human heads.Mixing comedy and horror is always a fine line. A line that many highwire walking directors seem to trip off of. But Paul Andrew Williams (who also wrote the screenplay) incorporates the perfect balance of each genre and throughout all of the silliness of the character's actions, we get some real elements of gratuitous gore including a shovel decapitation and a head and spine extraction a la Predator 2.The one fault we may find in the film was the make-up and the lack of originality in terms of our killing machine. Another mutated psychopath hiding out in the remote countryside has been done ad nausea in films such as the Wrong Turn franchise. And done better. At least the farmer in The Cottage has some kind of a personality. He is a mix of Sloth from The Goonies and a Hills Have Eyes/Wrong Turn love child. He might not be much to look at, but he sure can kill like the best of them.While screening The Cottage, we thought back fondly to Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. That film too was able to bring both comedy and horror in balanced attacks and would make a nice companion piece to The Cottage if you ever wanted a fun and gory double feature.www.killerreviews.com