The 2024 Brit comedy/horror Get Away proves that festivals, even foreign ones, can be murder. It is somewhat similar to the low budget film Lowlifes. Where a fun away day turns into a serial killing fest, aka; a “family fun day” for murderous family of mentally deranged killers. Get Away also switches paths halfway through the film.
The story
An innocent English family goes to a Swedish island to observe their festival. The “play” (It’s not a play!”) is 8 hours long and deals with England’s betrayal and full scale slaughter of the villagers long ago. Unbeknownst to the family, they are on the menu, as those long ago villagers resorted to cannibalism due to being starved by the local English government.
The villagers, it turns out, are in for a big surprise.
The Cast
Nick Frost is Richard, aka; Daddy.
Aisling Bea is Susan, aka; Mummy.
Sebastian Croft is Sam.
Maisie Ayres is Jessie.
Eero Milonoff is Matts.
Anitta Suikkari is Klara.
Jouko Ahola is Sven.
Ville Virtanen is Detective Forsberg.
Get Away Slaycation
Spoiler Alert! While it seems like the villagers are going to kill and eat the tourists, the Brit family actually start killing the Swedes. (F*cking Veggies.”) Richard, Susan and the kids systematically start murdering the villagers at the festival end.
We learn, however, that they have been killing every Swede they have in come in contact with. As Richard says, “This is your slaycation.”
It works
Amazingly, this all works. The British family seem odd from the first scene. It soon turns out that there is a reason for this. Everyone, apart from Susan and Richard are playing a part.
Get Away works brilliantly as an ensemble film. The real surprise, for me at any rate, was just how well comedian Aisling Bea performs here. I know her from her many appearances on English television shows like QI. She is very funny but not someone that I associate with acting.
But, the girl got chops.
Nick Frost does anything he works in with an errant sort of believability. Whether he is Ed in Shaun of the Dead or Ron in Attack the Block, we feel a certain truth in his performances.
Maisie Ayres as Jessie earns some big kudos here.
Behind the camera
Penned by Nick Frost and directed by Steffen Haars with cinematography credit to Joris Kerbosch with editing by Brian Ent; Get Away looks good. However, there are some issues with the fight/death choreography where things look a little sloppy. Knives being too far from throats to have really cut anything; looking at you Bea.
These issues do not spoil the dark humoured film though, they just jar.
the Verdict
Get Away is a 3.5 star film. Nothing too special but it is clever in its own way. I enjoyed it, mainly because of the Nick Frost/Aisling Bea pairing but also because of its “bloody” twist midway through. It is streaming on Shudder, via AMC +. Check it out and see what you think.
The Trailer
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