Shrooms (www.the-usher.com)

"You have the ultimate trip"

When Tara (Haun) promises her friends Troy (Kasch), Lisa (Hazen), Holly (Greczyn) and Bluto (Hoffman) the trip of a lifetime, it is not only a holiday in Ireland that she is promising. Her friend Jake (Huston) introduces them to the mushrooms of his local forest, promising them the trip of a lifetime but when Tara accidentally eats the deathcap mushroom, she suffers a seizure. When she awakens however, she starts to have premonitions about the future and seeing that the group are been pursued by ghostly apparitions that haunt the forests.

As Hollywood struggles for new ideas for the horror genre, fans turn to the rest of the world for their scares and now it is Ireland's time to provide them.

With remakes and gruesome torture horror been the only thing that Hollywood seem to making at the moment, fans of everything terrifying have struggled to find genuine scares to satisfy their lust for fear. The good news is that the rest of the world seems to be embracing the genre and are inventing new ways to get people cowering with fear. Unfortunately the Irish attempt is just as bad as the Americans.

The horror genre is filled with death but it always seems to be young people that fall victim to the killers and in 'Shrooms' this is no different. We have a group of American college students and friends who travel to Ireland to meet Jake, the man who can introduce them to some of the most potent mushrooms in the world. These 'shrooms' will give them the ultimate high but when one of them takes the deathcap mushroom, one that Jake had warned them not to take the trip takes a turn for the worst as Tara starts to have visions of the fabled ghosts that supposed to haunt the woods they are camping. More terrifyingly, she sees the deaths of her friends before they happen and she is powerless to stop it. While this might sound like an interesting premise for horror but it is so poorly executed.

Starring in a horror movie at the start of your career can lead to really big things, just as Jamie Lee Curtis or Johnny Depp but on the evidence of the cast of 'Shrooms', this isn't going to happen. Neither Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, Max Kasch, Maya Hazen, Alice Greczyn or Robert Hoffman really make any real impression or strike you as stars of the future. Only Lindsey Haun manages to take anything away from the film but she does tend to overact throughout.

With a dreadful story that doesn't really deliver any real scares or bloody kills and a cast that never really engage, 'Shrooms' is an example of how bad a horror movie can be. This film is appalling and you would have to be on shrooms to enjoy any part of it.

PICTURE & SOUND

The Blu-Ray disc presents the movie in High Definition wide screen 1:85 up to 1080p, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound.

BONUS FEATURES

Director's Commentary
Producer Paddy McDonald and writer Piece Elliott join director Paddy Breathnach to talk about the production of 'Shrooms'. In this good group commentary track, they reveal the many changes to the film in the production process, the technical difficultly they encountered and the additional scenes that were shot. This is a decent commentary that fans of the film should enjoy.

Deleted Scenes and Bloopers (16.49 mins/Standard Definition)
Entitled 'Stuck in the mud', 'Big foot', 'Laughing Scene', 'Funny kiss', 'Bloody crotch', 'He can stand on one leg', 'Bernie and Holly's death', 'Tara takes shrooms for a second time', 'feeding Jake shrooms' and 'Alternate endings', these deleted scenes suffer from the lack of a commentary track or introduction to explain why they were removed.

Theatrical Trailer (1.53 mins/Standard Definition)
Watch the trailer that preview of the film that was showcased at cinemas and on the Internet.

Cast and Crew Interviews (32.50 mins/Standard Definition)
Watch interviews with Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, Max Kasch, Maya Hazen, Alice Greczyn, Robert Hoffman, Don Wycherley, Sean McGinley, director Paddy Breathnach and producers Robert Walpole and Paddy McDonald.

Behind the Scenes (16.27 mins/Standard Definition)
Watch behind the scenes and B-Roll footage of Jake's death scene.

OVERALL

The Blu-Ray treatment for 'Shrooms' is a lot better than the film deserves. With a good commentary track and some decent behind the scenes footage and interviews, fans of the film, if there are any, will enjoy this Blu-Ray.

BLU-RAY

The Usher Home | Hush, Hush... | The Big Story | The Usher Speaks

Stuck @ Home | Coming Soon | Links | Contact the Usher

2007