Nigel P A couple of unpleasant pack leaders are preparing a group of unpleasant Pathfinder cub scouts for a camping trip. Sam (Maurice Luijten) isn't unpleasant, but he is late for their briefing, which earns him fifty press-ups whilst wearing his back-back. When they reach their intended camping site, the group run into two even more unpleasant youths with a grudge, racing around on a go-cart. This encourages the Pathfinders, who are also cowards, to camp somewhere else … deep in the woods.The two arrogant leaders Chris (Titus De Voogdt) and Peter – or Baloo (Stef Aerts) – are joined by the only female of the group, chef Jasmijn (Evelien Bosmans). Jasmine and Chris go some way to curbing the Pathfinders' bullying ways towards Sam, but the young outcast is more concerned with strange moving shapes in the trees and the legend of a local werewolf called Kai (Gill Eeckelaert).The idea of Kai is a strong and appealing one. A feral child-creature living out in the woods. The more that is slowly revealed about him – and his father – slowly erodes the sinister mystique, which is a shame. And once we learn more about him, the horror aspects become less spectral, and more like solid slasher fare. And yet the twists and turns never stop until … well, even I won't spoil that! This Belgian horror is a terrific production; it contains effective characters, fine set-pieces and some nicely contrived death scenes. For all the killings brought about by a selection of cruel and carefully set traps throughout the forest, the real monster here for me is Baloo. Titus De Voogdt instils him with relentless, cowardly spite and bullying ways, we truly cannot wait for his come-uppance, which can never be horrible enough!

TheBarleyGuy This one comes to us from the magical world of Belgium, and according to IMDb it is entirely in Flemish and French. I'm glad I looked that up too, because I ignorantly thought it was in German or Swedish for a fashion. Anyways, this movie came along right when I needed it to. It's been sitting in the queue of movies I had waiting, and after my last couple of disappointing viewings I really didn't know what to expect.Directed by Jonas Govaerts and written by Roel Mondelaers, this movie is a f**king blast. Admittedly, I don't know much about how Scouts works in Belgium, so you'll have to forgive my ignorance on that particular subject, but as far as I can tell, this movie is about two insane Scout leaders, a group of lunatic children, and one of the Scout leader's girlfriend, and also a dog. These kids head off into the woods despite a weird, out of place, werewolf legend, and encounter murderous lunatics in the woods.So, this one is an insane amount of fun. The woods have been hilariously booby trapped by (I think) a man who is not responding well to losing his job, and now lives underground, and his son (maybe?) who wears bark on his face and is frightening. The Scout group enters the territory of this evil duo, and all hell starts to break loose.All hell includes the dog getting beaten in a bag (I put that in here not to spoil, but to warn in advance for anyone sensitive to that kind of thing), a jeep running over a tent full of children, and a pit fight between two children. Seriously, that's all in this movie, and it's awesome. Seriously. F**king. Awesome.There are a couple of dropped plot threads, like a not-addressed photograph that Sam carries around, and a bus, buried under ground full of dead people. With that said though, I completely forgive all of that, because it's really just a blast to watch. There are a few instanced of adults hitting children like grown ups which is a bit weird, and it does go to some dark places throughout.It has some scary moments, and everyone in the movie does a pretty solid job from start to finish. Even the kids are believable, if not a little bit a**holey and the movie pulls very few punches, which I can respect.Overall, I give this a strong recommend if you can get your hands on it. It's fun, bloody, and a great watch. Though, I will warn you again, the dog definitely gets killed in this movie and so if you don't want that, then skip it. No, it's not a real dog, but scenes like that can be really hard to take sometimes. www.barleydoeshorror.com

Bryan Kluger Straight out of Belgium comes a little horror movie called 'Welp', otherwise known as 'Cub' here in North America. 'Cub' is a true return to the horror-slasher genre. I've never seen a slasher movie so brutal before. Usually, we see some form of jerk- off teenagers who plan a weekend vacation to get stoned, have sex, and drink like fishes. Then some supernatural force usually comes back to life or out from hiding to off each victim one by one in some gruesome fashion.It's a strong premise that has been duplicated thousands of times over in different settings and venues, and has made the Hollywood box office billions of dollars. But with this Belgium breath of fresh air, it's much deeper and smarter than the rest of them, and is quite disturbing with one hell of a backstory that keeps you guessing all the way up until the final moments of the film. 'Cub' follows a cub scout troop, ironically enough, full of not-quite yet teenagers and their three scout leaders. Two of the three scout leaders are young men in their 20s with the third being a female. The leaders run their scout troop like a military boot camp, but have a bit more fun.The troop is headed out to a weekend camping trip to the woods when one of the campers named Sam starts to notice some creepy things lurking out in the woods, after he learns the scary campfire tale of 'Kai'. Well it turns out that the legend of 'Kai' is much more real than anyone would like to believe. And not just real, but extremely violent and brutal, as this legend has set up elaborate traps throughout these woods to kill people who intrude on their space. It's never explained as to why this is happening, but we know that their is a deep dark past with this killer, which shows full on when people and animals start to be brutally murdered.It has a few of the usual genre tropes thrown in, but somehow here it feels fresh as the director uses his camera to show only what is needed and then surprises us moments later with a 180 degree turn. But what really shines here are the kid actors. Specifically Sam and a 'Kai'. Their creepy body language and understanding of all these adult themes are flawless.You'd think these kids were all adults with how they use their facial expressions to show their fear. 'Cub' is truly a remarkable and horrific film, and one that I can't wait to watch again.

Reno Rangan Legends are created to inspire, scare, obey and for entertainment. Sometimes for some people, it's a great opportunity to utilise the concept to do illegal things. Whatever this movie is about you must observe carefully and try to apply these theories. You will get the story, but enjoying watching it is up to what you were expecting and what it delivered. If you had seen numerous similar horror-thriller, then you feel awful.Belgian horror-thriller, well, that's what they say, but I doubt it. It sets in the summer scout camp, which is directed by a newcomer. A thirteen member of the scout team heads to the woods to set a camp. But it was about a 12 year old Sam, who is a cub scout. He's a first choice of pick to bully by his fellow scouts, especially by the den leader as well by one particular pack leader. He's always late, weak and his over imagination makes him a weirdo in the herd. During in the camp, he discovers what was said to be a legend is real. Not bothers to convince others since they never going to believe him. His adventure is to go deep and discover the secrets, but all the above finds the right place for his essence."Kai does exist. He lives in a tree house in the woods."The 'Marina' girl was in a prominent role. In this 80 minute movie every role was a prominent one. There was no time to develop character, but simply a straight forward presentation. Began with the spilling werewolf concept and it did not hold longer the suspense. Once you know it's not a horror, but a thriller you would lose the interest. Follows the cliché, the same old killings without the reasons or proper explanation. Well, at that time of the story that how it looked, but sooner or later you will know the truth. It's not only the camp versus the whoever hunting/haunting them. It's about the basic instinct, the first reaction to the situations. There is no surprise on the pack leaders, their's behavior is not just based on the fiction, merely true in reality.Traps were the best parts compared to the killings, but too short to have pleasure. Initially I expected it to be a children's horror movie since they are involved, but there are some contents that do restrict them from watching it. Commercial recognise is very important for filmmakers, so they didn't fear to bring the cliché on. I still feel the end should have been a little creative and a fresh idea could have served it well. Not only the end you are going to predict, well, almost everything before from happening.Keeping mystery is the key factor for a movie if the director and writer want to surprise the viewers. Does that 'hold-back' is good enough to satisfy the audience during the twist is the question. First half of the movie nicely keeps the suspense, all about the next half where smartness lacks. Actually, there is no twist at all, the story itself reveals from beginning till the end. All we have to do is figure it out ourselves what this battle is about, other than good versus bad. I'm itching to say it, but it'll spoil if you have not seen the movie yet, so I let you find yourself.As the Belgians perspective the film is okay kind, but not to the rest of the world. Overall an average movie compared to the international standards, but the production quality is impressive. A nice concept, set off very well, but the blow is maybe the influence of Hollywood in today's world cinemas, especially in this genre that did not help to finish it off ably. The days gone by this movie will be forgotten, but I believe in this filmmaker who has a good knack for this type of films will definitely come up with another brilliant product in a near future.6/10