Shrooms (2007) User Reviews

Unrealized Potential

[Siamois · 5/10 · 29 October 2007]

I am not surprised by the polarized opinions regarding this movie, although I do think there is a lot of overreaction.

Shrooms is simply a decent little movie that seems promising when you first begin to watch it, thanks in great part to solid direction tricks. However, eventually it fails to deliver because of a very, very weak story and a failed attempt at defying genres.

When you first start to watch, the movie grabs your attention with what seems like good characters and the remote set is also well showcased. You get some threads of character development and the story flows quickly to introduce the mood thanks to a character recounting a legend and one character consuming mushrooms.

Unfortunately, it's at this point that the movie starts going in all directions. Many reviewers seem offended that the movie didn't deliver a given experience which seems to be due to their expectations that this movie would follow a specific formula. Be it a "classic horror tale" or a slasher flick or gore movie. While movie fans would be wise not to make so many assumptions, one must admit there was a failure here by director Breathnach to develop a coherent mood and story.

For instance, the character development in this movie leads absolutely nowhere. In fact, many movies which do *not* rely on effective character development other than as a side-dish actually fare better than Shrooms. Yet we can't help but think it was sorely needed here. As well, the movie flirts between psychological horror, action horror and supernatural horror without ever hitting the marks. One can blend ANY genres if it is done effectively. But a mediocre story is much better off sticking to a proved formula.

One other fault of this movie is its derivative nature, borrowing tricks from a great many flicks such as Deliverance, Blair Witch and too many slasher flicks to name.

Finally, I have no idea if the director attempted a "plot twist" or not but I could see the plot twist almost as the seed was planted. I kept hoping there would be more to it, that it would be misdirection of some kind or that it would be made more explicit but no. The ending offers flashbacks explaining what happened, as if the audience wouldn't be aware of that! So what about the good? Well, the direction is really tight and some scenes, particularly early on, are effective at offering tensed moments. Lindsey Haun is also convincing as Tara. The rest of the cast is really forgettable. None of them are noticeably weak with the exception of Robert Hoffman, who really looked like he didn't belong.

I am left wondering if the editing is at fault here. Was a decision made to cut 30, 45 minutes of this movie that might have made it a great film? I certainly think this is possible. Almost none of the scenes felt boring. It just felt like an incomplete experience. Existential horror turned into classic slasher/survival movie midway into production.

Director Paddy Breathnach, who is more familiar with edgy comedies, is a welcome breath of fresh air compared to the very boring, repetitive directors who focus on the horror genre. But the screenplay by Pearse Elliott is at fault here.

Not bad, cliché, maybe predictable, but not bad.

[Amthermandes · 6/10 · 13 June 2014]

Shrooms is one of those movies you should already know everything about before even watching it, just based on the premise. A group of friends experiencing mushrooms trips in the wilderness, turns into a deadly fiasco indistinguishable from reality. A standard run-of-the-mill campy horror flick, complete with a horror movie starter-set cast; the smart and relatable lead female character, the annoying idiot jock, the goofball stoner, the b*tch, the outcast female, and the handsome nice guy (who also is occasionally, like in this case, the foreigner).

The movie has good, maybe even great moments. I especially like the 2 "locals," their characters aren't new to this genre, but they're fun and quite creepy and add an interesting flare to the movie. Some of the effects are well done, and the story is entertaining enough to keep you interested, and the very end gives the movie a nice touch.

However, the movie is riddled with clichés, the predictable jumps scares, and the gore effects aren't as good as they could have been. There's a part towards the end of the movie where they had so many chances to make to good, but it turned out rather boring.

Everything else is pretty standard, nothing special or particularly bad about the acting, directing, or screenplay.

In short, it's an average run-of-the-mill horror flick. If you're looking for something amazing, this isn't it, but if you're bored or are just a horror fan looking to enlarge your viewing collection, it's definitely worth a watch.

My favorite scene: The scene in the home of the two locals, I love the dialogue between them, very unsettling.

Slasher trying to be different

[dschmeding · 4/10 · 24 September 2007]

Shrooms basically is a Slasher Movie. 3 couples go to Ireland woods to collect magic mushrooms and trip out. Of course on their way they already meet some strange inhabitants of the woods and it doesn't take long until a creepy story is being told at the campfire which of course is more than just a story. So strange things happen, people start disappearing, silhouettes move through the woods and the creepy story starts to melt into reality. The idea of blurring the lines between reality and imagination is quite nice and works after the horror kicks in along with the effect of the mushrooms. Problem is that the pacing of the movie is damn slow and doesn't really pick up much till the end. So I often looked at my watch since it seemed and eternity. Shrooms is not a bad movie, it has some nice modern elements like the typical washed out colors, some nice tripping ideas like a speaking cow mixing in with the classic campfire story and haunted woods themes. Anyway its hard to be sucked into the movie... it tries to be hypnotic with the trippy visuals and permanent uncertainty of reality and imagination. But it just rides that horse too long and too slow... so when you get the ends twist you already might be too sleepy to care. If you want to see a trippy mix of Evil Dead, Blair Witch Project and High Tension go check it out, but don't expect too much action and gore.

Abysmal

[Cujo108 · 9 May 2010]

Six dopes go looking for magic mushrooms in the backwoods of Ireland. While tripping on the shrooms, they encounter someone determined to kill them off and must fight for survival.

Awful, awful film! It's a disjointed, achingly dull mess. It feels like there is nothing happening 90% of the time. Watch as the lead runs from a cloaked figure that's anything but scary, then repeat ad nauseum. The editing, intended to be trippy or not, is just pathetic. I hated the characters. They're bitchy and obnoxious to the extreme. Terrible dialogue too, a great example being when two of the girls talk to a third about what she sees in her boyfriend. There are attempts at humor, but they all fall flat. The kills, or lack thereof, are weak. With a film this poor in all other areas, good kills were it's only hope of being anything but a total waste. Alas, we don't get to see half of them, and the others are nothing to write home about. I can't forget the ending, which is just laughable. I haven't been this annoyed with a movie in quite some time.

While browsing the DVD section around the time this was released, I had the misfortune of deciding to grab it on an impulse buy. Bad move! I fought the urge to just throw it in the trash, but the urge eventually won out. This thing belongs in a landfill.

These shrooms are laced...

[ThrownMuse · 3/10 · 12 June 2008]

I cannot remember the last time a horror movie irritated me to this degree...SHROOMS is about a group of American friends (who actually don't appear to like each other much) who go to Ireland for vacation. They're obviously spoiled brats because the only thing on their mind when they're in freakin' IRELAND is getting their hands on some magic mushrooms ASAP. They meet up with some Irish friend (who is obviously British faking a bad Irish accent) that the lead girl (played by the creepy little girl from JC's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED--the rest of her face has now caught up with her forehead, thank goodness) is creaming over. They immediately go camping in the woods and searching for shrooms. VotD girl gnaws on a mushroom that the Irish-but-British guy specifically said not to eat because it's poisonous. Soon she starts flipping out and having flash-forwards about her friends dying. It's up to her to save her friends from the ominous backwoodsmen, the creepy black-hooded ghost that pops up between people legs and/or above their heads, and the obvious overused plot twists in the script.

It seems like every line of dialogue spoken by the obnoxious 20-somethings in this movie features the word "shrooms." And you thought JUNOisms were annoying! If you took a sip of your Irish coffee every time someone in this movie said "shrooms," you'd be dead before the first jump scare.

The only good thing about SHROOMS is the movie poster, which features a skull shaped out of SHROOMS in the moonlight. Cool!

standard slasher movie, with a twist

[kevin_crighton · 5/10 · 23 November 2007]

Shrooms boiled down to its basic level, is your standard slasher movie.

A group of young people head off into a forest in Ireland, to sample the magic mushrooms to get high. While there, they learn of a ghost story involving a local school for boys, run by monks, where young boys suffered horrible fates at the hands of the black-robed monks. Soon, the teens are being stalked in the wood by a black-robed figure...

The twist here is that because they have taken magic mushrooms, and are on a high from them, they can't quite be sure if it's all real or not....

It's that twist in the proceedings, that makes the difference here. Without it this would just be your basic, standard slasher movie. However, like most other slashers sadly it's not really scary. It does have a couple of jump shocks as things loom into view and such, but there's not really a scary atmosphere to the movie.

The cast do okay, although the characters are a bit clichéd. The script does it's job, but the director, Paddy Breathnach does well with the material.

However..... what saves the movie is the ending, which I liked. Not the most original it has to be said, but a good one.

It's nice to see a horror movie from Ireland for a change, even if most of the cast are American, although I wish they had made a better one. It's not the worst of the horror movies this year, but sadly it's not one of the better ones.

Disappointing

[LDD_man · 3/10 · 8 May 2008]

I saw the advert for "shrooms" and instantly wanted to see it so i rented a copy. I think the real clincher that will get this film an audience is the fact that it brings the drug element into a horror. I was hoping for a very trippy film that was so messed up you don't know whether to scream or rewind and rethink.

Unfortunately "Shrooms" goes for the premonition approach. After taking a bad shroom, Tera the main girl starts "seeing things". I just thought from that point on i'd seen it all before. I was right. Most of this film is simply people walking around, looking for something with a scared look on their face. The whole back story seems to be a relatively regurgatated camp fire tale that is used in most films "a bad house, kids are abused, one messed up kid left"- come on this just isn't scary.

Admittedly the ending is clever, but again not the most original.

The potential this film had is wasted on what seems to be a boring storyline. Not much trippyness or edge of your seat tension, just another B-grade horror.

Woah - bad trip!

[elaine-105 · 7/10 · 24 August 2007]

Six kids head out into the woods in some remote backwater of rural Ireland in order to take magic mushrooms and get off their heads. Given that five of them have flown all the way from America for the occasion (don't they have shrooms in the States?) it's rather unfortunate that they manage to pick woods that are not only peopled by drooling, inbred, axe-wielding halfwits (like Irish zom-com Dead Meat, Shrooms does as much for the tourist trade to Ireland as Hostel does for Slovakia) but also happens to house the crumbling shell of an abandoned borstal for young offenders, which was run by a group of evil, black clad monks – until one of them ate a bowlful of deathshead mushrooms and killed everyone else. Talk about a bad trip…

Of course, if I found out I was going to be camping in haunted woods full of looneys, I'd pitch my tent under the first creepy looking tree I found. And once settled in, I would ensure that, like our naïve heroine Tara (Kirsten Dunst lookalike Lindsey Haun) the first thing I did was eat a deathshead mushroom (symptoms: extreme rage and violence, and the ability to communicate with the dead and see premonitions of the future), then, like brainfried jock Bluto (Robert Hoffman), wander off into the forest all by myself in the middle of the night, or, like hippy chick Holly (Alice Greczyn) approach the aforementioned yokel locals for help. Have these people never seen a horror movie before?

Still, head-slapping stupidity aside, Shrooms is quite a satisfying little horror film. The central theme of the psychotropic mushrooms allows for a nice blurring between the borders of reality and horror fantasy, with some really quite effective hallucinogenic camera work tipping us nicely into the teenagers' trip. Sure, we've seen a lot of it before (mostly in the Blair Witch Project), and you can see the 'twist' coming from a mile off, in the dark, through a whole bunch of trees – and you'll be unsurprised to hear that it's wielding an axe.

Nevertheless, if you're a fan of pick-'em-off horror by numbers and you enjoy jumping out of your seat at regular intervals (or, indeed, if you're partial to talking cows or the rather gorgeous Jack Huston) you'll find plenty to enjoy in this savvy brew of unashamedly retro horror clichés.

load of rubbish

[Hapydaze · 1/10 · 28 October 2007]

I saw this movie tonight. Never have left comment here but feel compelled to warn you all before wasting your money in cinema - AVOID! I'm Irish and this film was made by Irish people, but never have I been so insulted by such deedley-i-isms, or laughed so hard at the completely rubbish and regurgitated story that they peddle here. Absolute load of tosh - stolen sequences from at least 10 different films, not the slightest bit scary or ironic. They were too cheap to spend any money on gore so decided to go for the 'unseen horror' option. The film actually got booed in the cinema as the end credits rolled, by not just me, but half the audience. Breathnach should be ashamed of himself, never show this film in Ireland again, and stay well away from the horror genre. Shame on Bord Scannan na hEireann for giving him the money, but it just goes to show what an old boys club the 'Irish Film Industry' actually is. *response to 'Johnofgod'* I do not work anywhere near the entertainment industry, and have as such no grudge to carry against anyone therein. In fact I'm a science student, and have no desire to pick up a movie camera. I am however a fan of cinema and horror movies and take offense when a 'popular' director picks a 'popular' genre and makes a total pigs ear out of it, when I then in turn am expected to shell out premium prices for someone else's vanity and back-clapping. I am quite certain also that the good money thrown after bad towards salaries, production and marketing on this one, could have funded 5 superior new hopefuls with the aim of in fact igniting a revival in the 'Industry' and saving the rest of us from the embarrassing drivel we got. I saw the film as the surprise film at the Horrorthon in the IFI, and certainly did not choose to see it as such. Given the surprise film from previous years, this one certainly was a surprise, and I'll be hard pressed to attend again next year. I don't know if you were there but certainly the boos I heard were not phantomised. I am entitled however to express my opinion of the film on this opinion page for the film, and given the other comments I do not think I am alone in my musings. Your unashamed vitriol towards my comments only serves to make me think that I have possibly hit a nerve with your own misgivings towards an 'industry' within which you are vaguely 'un/employed'.

Flawed But Fun!

[Mr_Saxon · 7/10 · 3 December 2007]

If you're already high on magic mushrooms and experiencing vivid hallucinogenic images, are the ghosts you keep seeing really there? This is the appealing premise around which Shrooms builds its story and it's a good one.

When a group of American students camping in a remote part of Ireland (a strange choice of location really - once the main characters reach their destination they could be anywhere) begin indulging in the pleasures of shrooms only to start perishing, is it the work of local ghosts... or are they just seeing things? Firstly, I'd like to say that although this movie has flaws - the acting (with the exception of lead actress Lindsey Haun) is only adequate, the characters could have been better defined (you get the jock, the "Jay from Jay And Silent Bob" style stoner, the two bitchy girls and the pretty virgin) and the ending is highly derivative of another, better horror movie - there is still a lot to love about Shrooms.

The main reason that this movie worked for me is down to the direction of Paddy Breathnach. There is a real sense of dread and gloom in some of the scenes, and the way in which the main antagonist is filmed is done very well; whether he's jerkily moving through trees or rising out of murky water. The location is, in itself, a character - a place of shadows, threatening trees and gloomy ponds. Breathnach also manages to convincingly capture the feeling of being out of your head as the camera flickers, or fades in and out of focus as the effects of the mushrooms are felt. In my opinion the later parts of Shrooms successfully come across like a bad trip. There's also a wonderful sequence involving a talking cow that adds humour to the movie and I would have loved to have seen a few more sequences like that. I would go so far as to say that Breathach's direction reminds me of Eli Roth (whether that's a good thing or not is up to you) and that comparison is easier to make due to the similarities between this and Roth's "Cabin Fever" movie.

Having read some of the comments here on IMDb, I'm not sure why so many people are responding so negatively about Shrooms. Yes, it seems to draw from movies such as The Blair Witch Project and Silent Hill for inspiration but, at the end of the day, it entertained me throughout its entire running time. I'd definitely watch it again and would certainly recommend it to other fans of the horror genre.

:The Bottom Line About This Film:

[ConnorHK · 5/10 · 24 November 2007]

i'd personally give this film 5.7/10.

This film is not a fantastic film, I'm sure by viewing most of the other "reviews" you can tell. But basically THE BOTTOM LINE IS this film is fantastic to watch if you're a teen (14-17?) sat at home with your mates, smoking some weed. otherwise the slightly bland acting and story line engulfs the fact that its a film about KIDS IN THE WOODS TAKING SHROOMS!, i mean come on, it has to be watched at least once doesn't it?

Not a great plot, but the fact that it's a bit of a crazy film could make up for it if you are in the right state of mind. I wouldn't recommend watching this film if your looking for a serious type of "oh my god I've defecated my pants" film.

Very entertaining

[TheFilmBabes · 10/10 · 3 March 2008]

I don't get all the negative attention this film is receiving. I truly enjoyed it. That could be do to the fact that I spent some of my youth on mushrooms myself, and I get it. The "trips" the characters go on are extremely realistic! Anyone who has actually experienced "shrooms" should see this, you'll be amazed. There is more to this film than drugs, it's also full of suspense and made me jump a few times. It has a very interesting story line, great casting and the filming is fantastic. I also enjoyed a lot of the humor in the movie. My point: don't believe everything you read, see this movie for yourself, I think you will find it very entertaining.

Great concept and nicely done, but not that scary.

[herminator64 · 7/10 · 10 February 2008]

I watched this movie tonight with a friend and we both enjoyed it, but we weren't as frightened as we would like. I like the concept as it is easy to make some scares out in the woods, and while the characters are drugged by mushrooms its hard to know if its real or not. It was nicely done without any major flaws, but it just dint get that scary.

I cant understand how people can give it a 1 out of 10. in my reference 1 would be an amateur movie with bad acting, bad filming and bad quality, but shrooms is nothing of this. Shroom is actually nicely filmed and has good acting. I just cant put word on that little extra that would make it more scary, because everything seems correctly done.

I give it a 7 out f 10.

A real sense of....boredom

[funky_hamsta · 1/10 · 23 September 2007]

I've seen hundreds of horror movies in my lifetime. This rates among one of the least entertaining or scary.

None of the characters were convincing or engaging, in fact I prayed for their deaths after about 15 minutes. The plot was nigh on skull-numbingly poor and the scares relied almost totally on sound effects and offered precious little on the visual front.

In its favour, the plot was not entirely predictable, but I was left not really caring what happened less than a third of the way through.

The thin pretext of a 'shroom'ing holiday could have quite easily been left out and all of the visions etc. could have been explained by a dodgy smell in the air...

Anyway, don't bother wasting your time with this one. Have a nice cup of tea instead and do something constructive...

Reefer Madness

[n1815 · 1/10 · 22 September 2007]

Our Transatlantic puritanical fundaMentalist Judaeo-Christian cousins (at least once removed) strike again, with yet another fear-mongering propagandist defecation.

This time, they are feebly attempting to turn our hearts and minds against the psychedelic mushroom, and all those who indulge in such practises of course, by suggesting that anyone (even an cloying, incessantly altruistic, All American teenage virgin cheerleader-stereotype) can become a psychotic sadistic murderer overnight after ingesting a single "Death cap" mushroom (not even a psychedelic strain: merely a poisonous lookalike).

This moronic "update" of Reefer Madness, shamelessly and inappropriately steals several visual scenes from the infinitely more intelligent classic, Jacob's Ladder, which remains the only genuinely frightening film of this ilk, in my opinion.

Ah, why am I even bothering. I had better things to do than watch this stool, never mind describe it to you, who is obviously even now contemplating wasting the best part of two hours on this drivel. OK, if you want to see trippy visuals, this is not the film for you: watch Fear and Loathing again, or google "optical illusion". This is nothing more than anti-drug propaganda, badly-made on a shoestring, directed and acted by people who have never even seen someone on (or apparently met anyone who has ever taken) psychedelics.

Utter muck

[Cuclean · 1/10 · 26 November 2007]

This was the surprise film at the Dublin Horrorthon this year and let's just say it was only surprising in that this is all that can be made of horror in Ireland. Firstly, the writer of the film must never have taken mushrooms in his or her life as during one "sex scene" the two unsuspecting teens take mushrooms and proceed to have sex, a noise outside is heard and they chalk it up to it being the "shrooms" taking effect. I understand that it was their first time taking them so that's the writing leeway that they allowed but there is a big difference in taking mushrooms where your entire physical senses are changed and thinking you heard a twig snapping.

The only idea of mushrooms that stays with the "plot" after the first forty minutes is the supposed special black headed mushrooms our heroine takes that allows her to see into the future. Boll**ks, I expected the idea of how messed up it would be to have a killer chasing you wile on mushrooms to be the basis of the plot, but aghast no! They don't need an interesting plot when you can just bash together some loud noises to try and scare the audience every two minutes.

The main character spends twenty minutes of the film walking around an insane asylum with an axe, that's not an exaggeration. Twenty bloody minutes with nothing happening. There were literally people talking amongst themselves in the audience through sheer boredom.

The film has one redeeming feature, and that is the appearance of Don Wycherley and Sean McGinley as the two hicks. I'm Irish and personally have no problem with someone creating a stereotype of us from time to time and I think the exaggerated acting was a welcome relief. No one complained when there were extreme freak rednecks in the likes of Texas chainsaw Massacre or Wrong Turn and considering I believe there are people in this country who still believe in "the banshee", fairy rings and other such insane Carroll's Irish Gift Store endorsed ideas, that it is entirely appropriate to enhance this image into that of the drooling country freak. We've all met at least one, come on, don't deny it.

To sum up, this film is in a word, bollo**s. Sorry to use the inarticulate "foul" language and constant air quotes but there's nothing else to go by with this one. It's the greatest waste of money. Take a hint producers, next time you want to give a new starter a chance in the business, make sure the script isn't the largest pile of cow dung to come out since, well, hell I'll just say it, The Roost. Hang on.... cow dung.... maybe that's where.......?

acted well enough, but the story is pretty dire

[movieman_kev · 4/10 · 13 September 2008]

A group of five friends travel to Ireland during their school break vacation in order to do some shrooms in the wilderness along with their Irish friend/ mushroom guide. When Tara (Lindsey Haun) takes a particularly bad mushroom, she fills her mind with horrific visions of the past and of her friends' future. A future that will bring death and destruction. It's also a future that will hold boredom, and a wasted hour and a half for those who choose to watch this uninvolving, predictable, agonizingly slow horror flick. The acting is all right, but the scares are just sadly non-existent. Also the ending (which anyone with half a brain can figure out EARLY in the movie) is pretty much a direct rip-off of another modern horror film (no spoilers)

My Grade: D+

Hallucinagenic Horror... Fun Stuff!

[terrible2 · 7/10 · 10 December 2008]

Director Paddy Breathnach brings us on a horrific "Trip" into the Irish wood, to experiment with magic mushrooms and terror. Well acted and executed "Shrooms" is an adventurous film with some profound humor and plenty of creepy backwoods moments throughout. However, being that the film revolves around hallucinations, one must constantly ask themselves if what is taking place is actually happening or just in the character's mind? That being said, I think the writing is strong enough to explore these complexities to great effect, although the story tends to appear a bit rushed towards the end. The characters are written to serve their individual purposes, which certainly helps to sell the drama and gives us a reason to care. The woodsmen are frighteningly realistic, and add to the terror factor of the unfolding story. The cinematography is top-notch and the special effects are admirable as we wander into places not normally visited with our sober psyche... About as much fun as you can imagine with low budget horror, "Shrooms" lives up to it's hype.

why...

[sarahalub · 22 December 2007]

'thats what we call the indigenous people'....

says the "Irish" boy with the remarkably uncanny east London accent, whilst in observation of the local Irish folk picking up roadkill for dinner...er racist much? anyways despite the shockingly unauthentic accents, (well just the Irish ones that is), and the massive (and that is an understatement) clichés, all thrown at me full force within the first EIGHT MINUTES (ladies and gentlemen we have a winner), I proceeded no further in my investigation of this 'film' (and it was an investigation...I didn't fathom that a film by the name of "shrooms" would be in any way a thought provoking or groundbreaking affair).

Usually a movie like this would be seen out of sheer entertainment in a 'so bad its good' vein of things.

this was actually so bad...that it was switched off (precisely eight minutes later). The blonde virgin, stoner king of 'shrooms', and jock stereotypes made me yawn with despair. As for the Irish boy (clearly originally from Romford), don't even get me started.

Avoid

All-time worst 'teens in the woods' horror

[Leofwine_draca · 1/10 · 20 December 2016]

SHROOMS has got to be one of the worst "teens in the woods" horror films I've ever seen, right along with the similarly execrable GRIZZLY RAGE. Although I hate films like this with a vengeance, I'll admit to liking the plot as a whole: it was responsible for a slew of atmospheric and gory '80s slashers (I'm thinking Friday the 13th) and even today gems are still added to the mix (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, of course, and more recently WILDERNESS). Yet SHROOMS is dull, dumb, and unworkable from the very beginning, a complete waste of space.

The plot sees a bunch of American teenagers heading to the Irish woods to experience some magic mushrooms. The setting enticed me, but nothing is made of the Irish connection: this might easily have been set in America, so the location is wasted. Director Paddy Breathnach instantly seems out of his depth, not knowing how to shoot his film, how to draw out the natural atmosphere of such a place, fumbling the action and chase sequences, dropping the ball when it comes to the scares. From watching the behind the scenes footage, it looked like was too mild-mannered to direct his cast properly. Add to this the execrable, clichéd-packed script and you have a recipe for disaster.

The horror-scenes are non-starters. Most of the kills are shown in flashback, or from another character's viewpoint, so you're not really sure what's going on. There are no special effects to speak of and no gore. The stupidly-acting characters are hateful and the cast poor, so even the joy of savouring the next death is taken away because you never really see it. The unlikeable Lindsey Haun comes off particularly badly, especially in all the 'sit up screaming with a camera strapped to her chest' scenes she has. God, just thinking of this rubbish makes my blood boil.

Nice slasher

[mario_c · 7/10 · 18 May 2008]

SHROOMS is a nice Irish horror flick that in spite of not adding anything new to the genre is quite interesting and good. The plot is the same used many times before and there are a few clichés either but it is suspenseful enough to attract viewer's attention until the end. It's generally a slasher, but there's a nice mysterious and mystical ambiance too, created by the woods and the abandoned institution. In the end there's a twist, which I won't spoil, but I must say that this kind of twist is becoming a bit average and over-repeat, since I've seen it in some recent horror flicks. The main idea is good I must say but it's becoming a bit repetitive and unoriginal. All in all, I think it's a nice horror movie, so I score it 7/10.

Average, but entertaining, drug-induced slasher

[Shattered_Wake · 4/10 · 23 July 2008]

A group of American teens take a trip to trip (on 'shrooms, that is). Told by a mutual friend about the ultimate drug trip by a certain type of magic mushroom, they head to the woods to experience it for themselves. However, after a bad batch, the group begins to see unearthly visions of demonic apparitions trying to attack them. Reality is blurred as the group of friends try to figure out if the visions are simple hallucination. . . or a true, evil threat.

I think they mistitled this film. It should really be called 'Clichrooms.' It's a nice blend on the two main components of this film: shrooms and clichés. Within the first ten minutes we're given: the typical idiot stoner, the nice girl in love with the 'bad boy with a heart of gold,' the foreigner, the 'travel deep in the woods for less-than-moral activity' storyline, the 'being stranded due to hitting an animal' accident, the shady forest-dwellerss 'looking for dinner,' etc. (I won't even mention the dozen we get at the end of the film.) It got annoying, but eventually evened out when the plot developed. The acting isn't awful, but not very good. . . just enough to make the film watchable. The backstory of the home for delinquents (or whatever the wannabe-Irish guy was talking about) was interesting, and I'm glad it was utilized a bit. The writing was quite off, however, resulting in stiff and boring dialogue and poor structure (and, eventually, a bit of a cheap ending). Breathnach's direction and Nanu Segal's cinematography weren't bad and worked well for the film, although the 'trip' visuals got a little too 'MTV' in their editing. Gore is almost nonexistent, or cut away too quickly. Dario Marianelli, an amazing composer, is one positive on this film. The music is very good, and it surprised me when I first heard it, and surprised me even more when I saw the composer. The blur of reality and fiction is actually effective, as it did make the film more than just a typical 'in the woods' slasher. But it wasn't enough to make it as thrilling as it could've been. It's entertaining enough, just chock-full of clichés which limit the worth of watching it.

Final verdict: 4/10. Meh.

-AP3-

Very Impressed

[kevschool · 8/10 · 13 November 2007]

All these negative comments, i was at the premier last night and was truly impressed. I wasn't expecting much, but was genuinely scared in parts, which has not happened to me in a long time with a horror. Paddy did a great job of mixing the typical slasher genre with the supernatural feel of an Asian horror flick, something that will be copied in the near future. The sound was terrific, perfectly complementing those darker scenes, and although the movie is called shrooms, it does not linger over that fact. There is very little "shrooms " in the movie, they are more of a door for the creative side of the director to run free. In finishing, this is not the best horror movie you have ever or will ever see, but it is definitely worth a watch.

a worthy entry to the psychedelic slasher genre

[mythago-3 · 7/10 · 20 November 2007]

I watched this film last week. I enjoyed it; it was decent light entertainment for the suspend-your-disbelief "young people go out to the woods and are killed off one by one" slasher film genre. And I don't usually like that genre. This one adds the psychedelic element that the group eats mushrooms and drinks mushroom tea. The mix of whether things are real or not, especially the shimmering effects in the woods, are quite well done. The cinematography is what kept me watching through the weaker story moments. I'm not sure I like the violence meme the film's plot seems to attribute to a particular super-strength mushroom, but again this is fiction. You will have to suspend some of your disbelief in regards to the tripping elements - those in the know will know it is not quite like portrayed. And the visuals don't meet the wild, dark beauty of the last sequence in Blueberry/Renegade. That said, its worth watching and stands out for an indie horror film.

On a related note, has anyone seen "The Tripper" directed by David Arquette? Also a decent psychedelic slasher movie. Maybe a bit more effective because of its satire.

Shockingly bad

[ajrussell73 · 1/10 · 17 October 2007]

One can only wonder at the motivation of such an ill conceived project. Was it to scare people from exploring with the sacrament of psychedelic mushrooms ? Or to show us how empty our vacuous culture has become? I'm sure the people involved in this project have some semblance of creative endeavour, yet I struggle to find any redeeming traits in this film what so ever.

So ignorant and uninformed is it with its subject matter, that quite frankly it's an humanitarian embarrassment. For truly enlightenment debate upon such issues one should explore Terence Mckenna, Bill Hicks, Alex Grey, Tom Robbins (Another Roadside Attraction), Daniel Pinchbeck, and the great Aldous Huxley (Island).

I confess I'm not a fan of the horror genre, yet this film veers towards poisonous propaganda. If todays two most valuable commodities are minerals and imagination, then what we see from the hegemony of American foreign policy and cultural exports is the subjugation of people, and authentic human exploration. This is a cultural example of Naomi Kleins "Shock Doctrine" ; in this case a sacrament of spiritual and personal insight, psilocybe semilanceata (liberty cap) is reduced by association to a similar fictional mushroom (the death head fungi) to something both frightening and deadly dangerous.

William Blake asserts "We must create our own systems or be enslaved by another mans". As individuals we must must explore our own realities on our own terms. Cultures for millennium have used entheogens to explore and enhance, yet we seemed to be tribally reduced to Starbucks, Bud, and Big Masc; 50,000 years of human evolution will in England give me seven years in prison for picking mushrooms: By who and why ? I leave to you to ponder.

We need to somehow reclaim our birthrights as evolving conscious beings, able to create and share. Do not waste your time with this film; go to a festival, a walk in the hills, or meditate, and pick your heroes wisely.

There is some vaguely interesting cinematography, yet it is lost within the context of such contrived drivel, if you do indeed buy into the Bud, Big Mac, and Nike mentality then watch it; for this is what you deserve.

The film is truly awful.