"The reeds" is a UK horror movie that goes for a rather typical genre approach. 2 couples and a single girl (handy... she's medically trained) go out for a boating trip in the reeds. Boats are sold out, they get some other boat which they have to pick up somewhere in the nowhere and they keep meeting some strange teenagers. Honestly I thought it would go for some kind of Eden Lake thing with the kids acting pretty dysfunctional but unfortunately it didn't. Boat gets lost, cellphones and radio don't work (they never do, do they?), people start acting totally idiotic and the boat gets impaled by a spike (realistically while slowly moving). From here on things get mysterious and most of it play in the dark night or foggy morning reeds with the teenagers re-appearing every now and then, some strange dreams and flashbacks inserted and pretty soon you know that this is just another ghost movie.
Problem is that the director obviously didn't quite know where to go... loads of things happen that don't make any sense in the bigger context and are never explained (for example a dog keeps re-appearing and the kids have fun barbecuing several animals... why? Don't even bother to ask. The whole explanation of the ghosts appearing and the lame parallels with the main actor make little sense as well. Its all just random and mysterious and to top it off the movie ends with another thing dropped in that turns the mess upside down again and dropped my rating by 3 points. The actors are quite interesting, the setting could have guaranteed for some eerie atmosphere and chills but they dropped their chances with the ridiculously convoluted plot. Ignore!
Problem is that the director obviously didn't quite know where to go... loads of things happen that don't make any sense in the bigger context and are never explained (for example a dog keeps re-appearing and the kids have fun barbecuing several animals... why? Don't even bother to ask. The whole explanation of the ghosts appearing and the lame parallels with the main actor make little sense as well. Its all just random and mysterious and to top it off the movie ends with another thing dropped in that turns the mess upside down again and dropped my rating by 3 points. The actors are quite interesting, the setting could have guaranteed for some eerie atmosphere and chills but they dropped their chances with the ridiculously convoluted plot. Ignore!