Leofwine_draca
THE REEDS is another entirely predictable horror yarn, set somewhat incongruously in the Norfolk Broads (for anyone who's ever been to the broads, you'll know they look nothing like the desolate, atmospheric place shown in this film). The cast are a group of uninteresting youths who run afoul of a dark secret, and the viewer's patience will be tested early on by the sheer banality of it all.The problem with films like THE REEDS is that they copy rather than innovate. So pretty much everything that you see taking place on screen here has been done before, and better too. The lines of dialogue are dull and lack spirit, and the cast give strictly ordinary performances with none standing out. The only person I recognised was Geoff Bell (COMEDOWN), stuck in one of those creepy elder type roles. Elsewhere, the film offers some bloodshed, a lot of screaming, and plenty of stuff shot in the dark to disguise the low budget. It's not very interesting.
movieman_kev
A fairly generic group of interchangeable douche bags go on a boat trip that, obviously this being a horror film, doesn't go exactly as planned. Their ship gets trapped and they're terrorized by people who may or may not be ghosts. The movies lame, unscary, and charts an extremely familiar course. The characters are pretty much cardboard cut-outs that you don't really care if they live or die. An awful entry into the '8 films to die for' made all the worse because I saw the best of the bunch ("Mungo Lake") right before this bottom feeder. And to make matters worse it has an ending that makes the whole film moot anyways so don't even bother to watch it in the first place.My Grade: D-DVD Extras: Ads for EpixHD.com & Fear.Net; and Promo trailers for "After Dark: Horrerfest 4", "8 Films to Die for 3", "After Dark Originals", and trailers for "Saw 6" & this film
Heislegend
Rarely do I ever give a movie 1 star. I've seen some truly awful crap that I gave at least 2 or 3 stars for effort. But maybe that's the problem with The Reeds...it's not trying. At all. The only effort I could see going into this film was the attempt to cobble the whole mess of crap together at the end, and even at that it failed miserably. I have to agree with another reviewer who compared it to Triangle, but perhaps because I watched that only a few months ago so it happens to be somewhat fresh in my mind. But the big difference is that Triangle managed to keep it's warping of time linear whereas The Reeds just sort of went "screw it...it doesn't need to make sense". To make matters worse, it was presented as part of 2010's Afterdark Horrorfest...a festival that usually produces movies that are at least decent.The plot is almost pointless to explain. A group of friends takes a boat out onto...a lake or something. They become marooned and start dying in truly ludicrous ways. Then things become all weird with the time line and past events are played over again...sometimes involving the main characters and sometimes not. Again, just a random mash-up of crap that I guess is supposed to be spooky or something. Then it ends on a completely unrelated note that might as well have been a different movie. Nothing here is redeeming. Not the story, direction, cinematography, acting...nothing. Ditch this trash.
NathalieP
A horror that looks like high-grade 1980s output, which made it spooky and nostalgic in equal measure - the 16mm explains the nostalgic bit.On the positive, the young main characters are attractive - I dug Laura (magazine girl Anna Brewster) and her Kate Moss delivery - very London - and the set up is nicely done, hinting at yikesy things to come, which they do.On the negative side, I wasn't really sure about the movie's central message, but I did like the hook - yes, there is a comparison to Triangle definitely, but this is different again.I'd say that this is not a wide theatrical release type movie but that it's pretty good and quite creepy watching it late at night within the comfort of your own home. Most of the acting makes it feel very natural, very real, and you can (if you shut your eyes and click your heels three times) almost imagine yourself there in amongst those razor-sharp greeny reeds wondering where everyone else is...
AD
