30 Miles From Nowhere

The cabin in the woods is a tried and true horror movie location. You take advantage of the inherent isolation, cramped space, and add in a malevolent force. But there's usually one caveat. It's usually the group's idea. Whether it's a trip or a vacation, the people about to meet a grizzly end usually had some say. But what if they were lured there for a tragic reason? Which brings us to 30 Miles From Nowhere.

The Setup

The film follows a group of former college friends who are headed to Wisconsin for a tragic reason: one of their best friends committed suicide. At the request of his widow, the group flies in and travels to the couple's guest cabin. But as old arguments and habits resurface during a night of debauchery, there might be something more sinister happening...

There's a lot of things I like about this movie. I think the premise is pretty strong (i.e. put people already dealing with the stress of a tragedy and years of unsaid words and put them in a horror movie), the cast are all fantastic, and doesn't try to hide what genre it is. Our widow is off from moment one so it's just a matter of figuring out what's going on. Pepper in some subtle jump scares and weird occurrences like blood coming out of faucets and we've got a suitably creepy atmosphere.

The group scenes are actually the film's strongest as they all take subtle pot shots at each other or revert back into old habits. These do not look like people who are ready to work together in a crisis. And we've also got a young woman, one of the friend's girlfriend, who seemingly recognizes that she's in a horror movie (which is fun).

The film's has two main problems though. The first is that it's a little too obvious about what's happening. It's ok for the widow to be suspicious, but there's some very loaded exposition early on that may as well say "this is the plot of the movie" and a bunch of not so subtle moments like people discovering odd things around the cabin. At that point it becomes a waiting game to genre fans.

The second problem is that for all it's setup and eventual payoff this movie should have a stronger thematic core. There's a lot of monologuing towards the end about what this is all trying to prove, and sadly it doesn't line up with what we've seen. This is supposed to be a scenario that breaks people down and gets them to betray one another or act in unexpectedly violent ways. And for the most part that doesn't happen. 

None of this is the fault of the cast who all fit their parts perfectly. Whether we've got the "nice guy" everyone takes advantage of, the womanizer, the kinda smart/kinda dumb young woman, or the perpetual creep, everyone is playing their character exactly right. Unfortunately the film's construction means I was rushing to put all the pieces together before the credits rolled. Ideally this is when the picture becomes clear, but for me it just felt like the writers wrote themselves into a corner.

Verdict: A Mixed Bag

Though solidly acted and directed, 30 Miles from Nowhere stumbles down the stretch. 5/10