"Smell is the first sense you have when you're born... and the last sense you have when you die." (Reeker (DVD))

Name: plipplop

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Product:	Reeker (DVD)
Date:	16.07.06 (310 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strange, smelly, slaughter

Disadvantages: It's been done before - and better

It started off like any other road trip. Friends travelling together across the desert, loaded up with luggage and the anticipation of a groovy gig at the other end of the journey. One of them harbours a dangerous secret. Shortly before he joined his friends in their truck, one of the reckless teenagers took it upon himself to visit his usual drug dealer, and make off with a huge stash of tablets. Hidden away in his holdall, none of his friends have any idea that they are carrying such an attention-seeking cargo – and when they find out, they waste no time in driving to the nearest motel to abandon the cargo and the idiot who brought it on board.

In the middle of nowhere, they find said motel and abandon unwanted passengers. But when they find that the fuel line has been damaged, they are suddenly confronted by the unpleasant reality that they will have to find shelter and amusement for the night until the morning when they hope to be able to find assistance.

It’s going to be a long night. In a small, ramshackle outbuilding used as a makeshift toilet, something gurgles and seethes in the dark. In the diner’s main dumpster, somebody is trying to escape and in one of the motel rooms huddles a wretched young woman, desperately trying to scribble down a message as her emaciated face decomposes further and further.

But more importantly, all the teenagers will soon find themselves asking the same question.

What IS that dreadful smell…………….?

Slipping in and out of cinemas at one of the most hectic periods of the year, you could be forgiven if Reeker passed you by. If it had come to your attention, you would almost certainly remember it, with a title like that and if you did actually go and see it, I’m quite sure you’d remember it even more.

The “reek”, you see, is that unmistakeable odour of death. It’s the smell you get when your next door neighbour has been rotting in his bathroom for five days. Unlike your neighbour’s bathroom, however, in Reeker the worst is yet to come because the smell of death is likely to be followed by the arrival of death himself – as the teenagers in this movie discover to their peril.

Whatever you make of it, Reeker is a combination of many horror genre favourites. Rather like the Final Destination series, you might find yourself guessing how the heroes will come to a sticky end (hint: you never will). Failing that, it’s stalk and slash of the finest variety, with some barbed, cloaked figure skittering across the desert backdrop, hacking lumps and bits off whatever he can get his hands on as though somebody has something he wants back (ahem). You do, however, always get the feeling that there’s a little bit more to this than meets the eye, and you wouldn’t, of course, be wrong. From the brutal introduction (watch out animal lovers, doggie mutilation ahoy!) to the teenagers’ arrival at the motel, something just doesn’t “feel” right and when a legless trucker scuttles out of the motel dumpster as though he’s been caught stealing the leftovers, reality starts to fade into the distance. The “killer” seems unable to make up his mind as to how he wants to kill people, switching from giant scissors, to a buzz saw thing and then back again and it’s all just plain weird. And that, dear readers, is entirely the point.

Reeker is not a traditional stalk and slash, nor is it a black “how will they die?” comedy fright-fest. As the final scenes settle into place you suddenly realise what’s been going on. The clues were there from the beginning. I can’t tell you what they were or even the least shrewd amongst you will have it all figured out. The “climax by numbers” is a little patronising, given that the director seems insistent on pointing out every last detail, but you have to hand it to him, he does at least try and make sense of every last detail. So why will you end up feeling so cheated?

The trouble is that whilst the story is quite unique, it isn’t entirely original. This has been done before. Again, I can’t explain when or where, because I’ll give the game away, but just trust me that it isn’t as original as you first think. This is a huge disappointment, given only that the way the film is made is just so darned freaky that you might believe that this is going to be something quite outstanding. I loved the whole idea. Teenagers in deserted motel, hunted down by strange killer whose presence can only be detected by the foul smell of rotting flesh. How cool is that? I loved the visuals. The blinking, skittering images of the killer appearing here and there were creepy and unsettling. The presence of other “victims” in other states of emaciation was curious – what had been going on? The arrival of and old man named Henry, looking for his missing wife adds more intrigue – is he everything that he appears to be. There’s even a blind man in the party, purposefully placed because his heightened senses mean that he’s instantly more aware of the “Reeker”. It should have been so much better.

It’s not helped by a fairly weak cast. Whilst any such film is reliant on its teen characters, the ones used in Reeker have little going for them. The only familiar teenaged face is Derek Richardson (recently seen being tortured in Hostel) and he plays virtually the same character here. The lead female, Gretchen, has a really irritating voice and everyone else is instantly forgettable. Michael Ironside’s arrival as Henry promises more but delivers little and he’s out as quickly as he is in.

I couldn’t help thinking that one of the director’s biggest problems was cash flow. Reeker should have been “nasty” but actually more “cheap and nasty”. The opening scenes were (unintentionally) guffaw-inducing, due largely to some seriously bad make-up effects. The night time setting of the rest of the film exposes the budget less, but you can tell there wasn’t much money to go round. The 15-certificate is a fair reflection of the violent content – Reeker would have had to be much nastier to merit anything more and in retrospect actually feels quite tame.

At around ninety minutes, Reeker keeps it short and simple and never outstays its welcome. I liked lots of “bits” of this film, but the finished product was just not satisfying enough and as much as I wanted to be creeped out, I very rarely was. To anyone looking for common sense and logic, Reeker would simply exasperate so it probably doesn’t come as any surprise that it came and went so quickly.

Not recommended

Summary: Something fetid this way comes...