Shrooms (film)

Infobox Film
name = Shrooms


image_size =
caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Paddy Breathnach
producer = Paddy Mc Donald and Rob Walpole
writer = Pearse Elliott
narrator =
starring = Lindsey Haun,
Jack Huston,
Max Kasch,
Maya Hazen,
Alice Greczyn,
Don Wycherley,
Sean McGinley,
Robert Hoffman
music = Dario Marianelli
cinematography = Nanu Segal
editing = Dermot Diskin
distributor = Vertigo Films (UK)
released = November 23, 2007
runtime = 86 min
country = IRL
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.shroomsthemovie.com
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0492486

"Shrooms" is a 2007 horror film about a group of American studentscite web|url=http://www.omghorror.com/article/61394/review-shrooms/|title="SHROOMS" at OMGhorror|author=Eater of Entrails|date=11 February 2008|accessdate=2008-03-05] and their Irish guide who are stalked by a serial killer while out in the woods looking for psilocybin mushrooms. The film was written by Pearse Elliott directed by Paddy Breathnach, and stars Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, and Max Kasch. "Variety" described it as "A shake-'n'-bake slasher movie that shows just how difficult it is to do effective, modestly budgeted horror". [cite web |url=http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934481.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 |title=Shrooms Review |publisher="Variety" |date=2007-08-22 |accessdate=2008-02-28 ]

Plot

American student Tara and her college friends visit Ireland to meet with local resident and friend Jake, and go camping in woodlands surrounding a long-disused children's home. Whilst collecting Magic mushrooms for later consumption, Tara experiments with a deathcap mushroom and suffers a seizure after which she experiences dream-like trances in which she begins having premonitions of future events.

Around the evening camp fire, with Tara resting in her tent, Jake tells a ghost story of the empty children's home nearby, and of a violent sadistic monk belonging to the religious cult who owned the orphanage. This monk, after consuming soup spiked with deathcap mushrooms by one of his charges (as revenge for killing his twin brother) went berserk and slaughtered everyone in his order, including almost all of the children. Overhearing this causes Tara to have premonitions of the murders of her friends one by one, and ultimately herself.

After a nocturnal row with his girlfriend and the others, aggressive jock Bluto drinks some of the hallucinogenic tea (supposedly for all to share in the morning) and experiences a trip which culminates in his murder, seemingly at the hands of the rogue monk from the children's home.

The following morning, unconcerned by Bluto's disappearance - the others consume the mushroom tea, only to become separated from one another in the woods whilst under its effects. The three women, arguing and squabbling, get lost until they themselves are split, and Holly and Lisa are violently murdered - in accordance with Tara's continuing visions - after an encounter with local woodsmen Ernie and Bernie.

Jake and Troy locate Tara on the opposite bank of a river, and instruct her to meet them in the abandoned children's home to summon help. Upon investigating the property, Troy is apparently killed by the lonely twin, and Jake makes good his escape by leaping from a high window, breaking his leg as he lands. Tara finds him and the two flee the haunted scene. Then, while resting his injured leg, Jake is murdered.

Tara awakes as a Garda helicopter hovers over the camp, and is dispatched into an ambulance as the sole survivor. As her mobile phone rings, she experiences a rapid flashback, along with Jake's knowledge of deathcaps (which boost the rage in someone, as well as apparently contact the dead, and gives the gift of foresight- if you survive) and comes to realise she herself murdered all of her friends.

Upon this point Tara asks the Paramedic to help her. Tara kills the paramedic with a pair of scissors. The movie then ends with Tara running through a forest.

Everyone dies.

Cast

Lindsey Haun as Tara
Max Kasch as Troy
Jack Huston as Jake
Robert Hoffman as Bluto
Maya Hazen as Lisa
Alice Greczyn as Holly
Don Wycherley as Ernie
Sean McGinley as Bernie

Production Notes

A UK/Irish/Danish co-production, "Shrooms" was shot over a period of seven weeks, largely in Rossmore Park in Monaghan, Ireland.

References

External links

* [http://www.andersongraphics.co.uk/2008/01/20/interview-paddy-breathnack-on-shrooms/ Paddy Breathnach interview on 'Shrooms']
* [http://www.eatmybrains.com/showfeature.php?id=82 Interview with Pearse Elliot on 'Shrooms']