Cult Canoe: New-School Take on an Old-School Formula in “Solo” (2013)
SOLO
A teenage girl who has suffered some sort of trauma involving water takes a job as a counselor at a lakeside kids’ camp. You’ve heard this one, right?
Presumably, this is a way to face her inner-demons. As a new counselor, she is required to do a “solo” – two nights camping on her own on an island away from the others. But is she really alone?
Solo is another entry in the “survival horror” genre, as the girl faces off against a threat on the island. Ultimately, the success (or failure) of a movie of this sort boils down to two things: Is the threat credible and interesting, and does the protagonist make reasonable choices to combat or avoid the threat? Yes, and yes. It’s also very lean, moving the story along with little exposition, while still establishing the characters well enough that you can understand their motivations and have at least some concern about their survival.
Overall, not the most original story, but very watchable and well made…with at least a couple of interesting new ideas.
3 of 5
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Michael Bird has been a horror movie fanatic since before he really should have been watching horror movies. Growing up in the eighties, the first real horror movie he saw was Re-Animator. Since then, he’s had an unhealthy obsession with Barbara Crampton and a tremendous fondness for the Golden Age of 80s Horror. From the best to the worst, he watches them all, so you don’t have to.
In the rare moments when he’s not scouring the weirdest parts of Netflix and Amazon Prime, he does software development and cooks stuff (quite well). In addition to writing for Red River Horror, he maintains his own review site at http://ounceofblood.wordpress.com, where he offers up “brief reviews for the busy horror fan.”
