About Stefan Halley
Location: Malmo, Sweden
Occupation: Editor-in-Chief
Bio: Stefan has been writing reviews for seven years and started Pop Syndicate out of need to voice his mis-guided opinion.
Posts: 729
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Avoid the black nipples.
It’s so obvious it’s surprising that it hasn’t been done before. The surreal nature of hallucinogenic mushrooms seems like a natural fit for horror. It certainly gives the director the chance to play with reality and mess with expectations. While Shooms never fully realizes it potential, it does create some nice horror moments that will keep fans of the genre happily drinking the tea.
A group of Americans (of course it’s a group of ignorant Americans) go to Ireland to see the beautiful countryside and trip balls off of hallucinogenic mushrooms. All the clichéd character types are present; stoner dude, a jock, the hot chick, the uptight girl and the foreigner that is our guide though the film. They all travel to the remote countryside to try the shrooms. Naturally there is a catch. The good mushrooms look like breasts with a brown nipple. The bad mushrooms, called Death’s Head mushrooms, can cause will hallucinations before causing a painful death.
No sooner are the words out of the Irishman’s mouth than one of the girls pops the wrong mushroom in her mouth. She immediately has a reaction and soon starts seeing a figure cloaked in black and the death of her friends in dreams. One by one her dreams come true. Is it the shadowy figure lurking the woods or something else killing everyone?
Thankfully, director Paddy Breathnach didn’t make everyone a stoner idiot, but that doesn’t mean that none of them move beyond the base stereotypes. You would think if you’re going to another country for the express purpose of trying a drug you would do a little research on it and not rely on a stranger to give you the heads up. This is one of the downfalls o Pearse Elliott’s script. All the characters just want to trip on the shrooms and little thought is given to them beyond that until they become meat. What’s the saving grace and the selling point of Shrooms is the fun hallucination sequences and violent kills.
Pearse Elliott’s script also fails to capitalize on the use of a great local legend that plays prominently in the film. Instead he opts for a more traditional by the numbers murder story. As the movie plays out, it becomes fairly obivious that it will end either one of two ways. I won’t go into those two ways as it will spoil the film for those that can’t figure it out.
Extras wise, there are two alternate ending that makes no sense given the direction of the film, a blooper reel, several alternate and deleted scenes and a commentary track with director Paddy Breathnach, producer Paddy McDonald and writer Pearse Elliott.
Shrooms is a fun horror film. It had potential to be a true classic but it falls short on several occasions. Still, it’s definitely worth a rental and I would give it a mild recommendation on a purchase.
