Nigel P Reviewing a comedy is difficult. If you examine the jokes too much, they fall apart. If you quote various lines out of context, they lose their impact. 'The Cottage' is very much of the type that deserves to be watched, enjoyed and left at that.To skirt over the story, David (Andy Serkis) and Peter (Reece Shearsmith) have kidnapped Tracey (Jennifer Ellison) but the situation becomes more complicated than any of them could imagine. Then, those complications become complicated … and so on. Even in the very last scene, the situation that has taken on such satisfyingly ridiculous proportions becomes … even more complicated.My one real problem with this are the excessive profanities. At the risk of sounding like everyone's elderly parents, I found such expletives are shockingly funny to begin with, but become wearisome once they are established as the normal way of speaking. Other than that, this is a fine slice of black comedy. Politically incorrect in places, but mainly the laughs come from the extravagant blood and gore on display.Tracey's large breasts only feature once as the focal point of the comedy, serving only as a distraction allowing her to get the better of Peter. The males are the subject of the humour here, their ineptitude and consistent failures causing the mayhem that propels the story. It's good to see Hellraiser's Doug Bradley in this, but a shame his appearance is limited to a 'villager with dog' credit.All performances are enjoyable, with the excellent Shearsmith getting the brunt of the gory punishment. With Serkis, it is easy to note his performances as a number of CGI creations in other films, but this is a reminder what a good 'physical' actor he is too.

Aaron1375 I rather enjoyed this British horror/comedy. It was not as good as say Shaun of the Dead or Dog Soldiers, but it was a rather entertaining film. Why did I mention those films? Well Shaun of the Dead is a horror comedy that keeps its comedic tone constant throughout and is more comedy than horror. While Dog Soldiers was mainly horror, but did have parts that were comedic. The problem with this film is that it feels a bit uneven. The first portion of the film is a kidnapping gone wrong and black comedy while the second half it becomes a horror/slasher film that maintains some of the comedic tones, but at the same time gets too dark. When I watch a film like this, I expect the leads to survive the crisis like in Shaun of the Dead...well okay, I guess one did not technically survive. In this one, does not happen. That being said it did manage to surprise me with the ending.The story has two brothers who have kidnapped this girl and are holding her for ransom. Things begin to go wrong fast as the brother who does not seem to have a handle for the type of thing the two brothers are doing lets things slip. Another member of the group who brings the money makes his fair share of mistakes too, less to do with an inability to handle the situation, but more to do with the fact he is quite dim. Things begin going badly and just as they do not seem to be able to get worse they get much worse as they stumble upon a farmhouse where something sinister is lurking.I liked the film, as I found the first portion of the film very funny. I kind of wish it would have stayed a simple kidnapping gone wrong as it got a bit too dark once the deranged lunatic showed up. There are still funny moments, but like I said, was not expecting it to be quite so brutal. They put everyone through so much only to put them through even more! So not the best horror/comedy I have seen from the British, but still every enjoyable.

Greg Over the past few months, we have had the embarrassing privilege of discovering some fairly recent but overlooked horror films. Our 'privilege' comes in the form of the entertainment that each of these films brought to the screening. Our 'embarrassment' is in how we missed these titles on their initial release.Titles such as The Lovely Ones and Dream Home have helped restore our faith in the horror genre and nails to the cross the idea that there are indeed good horror films out there – you just have to find them.The recent addition to our 'how did I miss this?' list goes to Paul Andrew Williams' The Cottage. Released in 2009, The Cottage stars Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith and Jennifer Ellison and surrounds a kidnapping that goes to pot when a deformed and psychopathic farmer takes offense to the kidnappers holding up near his rural farm.Reminding us of From Dusk Till Dawn, the film is almost two completely different stories sewn together seamlessly by a plot development. The opening chapters of The Cottage play heavily on the humor of brothers David and Peter (Serkis and Shearsmith) and we watch as these two fumble and bumble their way towards an expected ransom demand of $100,000 pounds for the return of captured Tracey (Ellison).But a series of events soon lead Peter and Tracey to open a trap door in the farm kitchen which seems to bring with it a mutated farmer who enjoys collecting both family photographs and human heads.Mixing comedy and horror is always a fine line. A line that many highwire walking directors seem to trip off of. But Paul Andrew Williams (who also wrote the screenplay) incorporates the perfect balance of each genre and throughout all of the silliness of the character's actions, we get some real elements of gratuitous gore including a shovel decapitation and a head and spine extraction a la Predator 2.The one fault we may find in the film was the make-up and the lack of originality in terms of our killing machine. Another mutated psychopath hiding out in the remote countryside has been done ad nausea in films such as the Wrong Turn franchise. And done better. At least the farmer in The Cottage has some kind of a personality. He is a mix of Sloth from The Goonies and a Hills Have Eyes/Wrong Turn love child. He might not be much to look at, but he sure can kill like the best of them.While screening The Cottage, we thought back fondly to Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. That film too was able to bring both comedy and horror in balanced attacks and would make a nice companion piece to The Cottage if you ever wanted a fun and gory double feature.www.killerreviews.com

gavin6942 In a remote part of the countryside, a bungled kidnapping turns into a living nightmare for four central characters when they cross paths with a psychopathic farmer and all hell breaks loose.My experience with Paul Andrew Williams has been brief, though with his limited filmography this probably is no surprise. The first thing of his I saw was "The Children", which was excellent. However, being that he only supplied the story and did not write the screenplay or direct, his influence is hard to gauge.Next I saw "Cherry Tree Lane", which I do not particularly care for. I will admit that if you want a realistic story of a family being terrorized by teenagers, this is about the best job that could be done. But it is not my cup of tea, and did not leave me overly impressed.And so, I entered into "The Cottage" a little bit less than confident, and was immediately impressed. Williams has a phenomenal script here, seamlessly blending a crime drama, a comedy and a horror film without missing a beat. As the genres blend together or flow from one to another, it never seems forced or awkward. The success of this feat alone make the film worthwhile, as I am unable to think of any other picture that has even tried this blend.But beyond the script, the characters are excellently cast and acted (it is nice to see Andy Serkis in a human role). The special effects are well above average. The makeup is quite good. And there is enough action, suspense and humor to really keep just about everyone interested in the picture.Ultimately, a great film that received too little publicity at the time of its release. Hopefully it is not too late to save it from obscurity.