WRECKAGE
DVD region 2. Chelsea Films.

When their car breaks down during a drag race, pretty people Jared (Mike Erwin), Rick (Aaron Paul), Kate (Cameron Richardson) and Jessica (Kelly Kruger) decide to walk to the local junkyard. By the time they get there, it’s dark, and while they search for a spare belt, Kate is accidentally shot by Rick, who is fooling around with a gun. Jared goes to get help, but when he returns with the police and an ambulance, his friends are missing. But soon, Jessica is found dead and an unseen assailant starts to attack the survivors. Could it be the escaped prisoner we keep hearing about? Or someone closer to home?

That, at least, is the basic plot of Wreckage, a surprisingly above average movie that manages to transcend the teen horror that you fear it will become and instead turns into an interesting cat and mouse thriller, with some interesting twists along the way. Not all of them make much sense, it has to be said (you have to accept that the police will routinely hand guns to people who were suspects a few moments earlier and allow them to go off hunting for a killer in a dark and desolate junkyard), but it’s to the film’s credit that I didn’t feel too cheated at the end, despite some plot holes remaining wide open.

Decent performances all round (including a turn from a barely recognisable Monsters star Scoot McNairy) and solid direction from John Mallory Asher helps raise this out of the glut of generic slasher films, and it pulls of that most difficult of feats – having a teen cast that you don’t want to punch in the face. Twisting and turning all over the place, the film manages to rack up a decent level of tension and while relatively light on violence - this is more of a mood piece than a bloodbath – it delivers enough shocks to keep most people happy.

It’s no masterpiece, but Wreckage is an entirely satisfying viewing experience. A re-run at the end of an opening scene is a bit redundant (in fact, the film could’ve done without the first version of this sequence) and the red herrings are redder than in most movies, but if you suspend your logical faculties for a while, you’ll probably find this a pretty enjoyable ride.

LES DE MONZE

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