Just behind the grammar school and past the ‘No Trespassing’ sign is the shortcut through the woods that nobody dares to take: People in town still whisper about the creepy old guy who lives back there and the kids that disappeared near his home a long time ago. Now a group of high school seniors has decided to find out just what the shovel-wielding weirdo may be hiding. But even if they can uncover his shocking secret, will they survive what happens when the truth is finally unleashed?

Stills from The Shortcut (Click for larger image)

Don't Be Misled-This is NOT a Slasher Movie (1.0)

No, this is not a slasher film, nor is it even a generic horror film. Halfway through, I was convinced that it might turn out to be a respectable mystery movie...........but they couldn't even get that right. Basically, they approach pretty much the entire film as if it was in the mystery genre-then, right at the end, they try to make it a horror movie, but it's too little, too late.........and too stupid.

Don't buy into the idea that it's the PG-13 rating that spoils this thing, either. It's possible to make excellent slasher or slasher-type films without buckets of gore(the first Halloween movie, or Pscyho, come to mind). It may be rare, but it can be done. But this thing is just weak.

I didn't like anybody in this movie. I hated the girls. I hated the boys. I hated the old people.

Plus, from the title, you'd think you'd get lots of spooky nighttime scenes along the dreaded 'shortcut.' You'd expect lots of ambience, from the title and a brief description of this film.

Nope. They barely even bothered to show the shortcut. I guess it was too much work and trouble to drag all the equipment into the bushes.

I am on the verge of swearing off these 'straight to dvd' horror films. I have had nothing but bad experiences with them.

To each his own. If you want to roll the dice, it's your business. But know going in-this movie is like a 70 minute after school special, with 10 minutes of retarded horror tacked on to the end.

not a shortcut- more like shorted out (2.0)

I have no earthly idea why amazon won't put up my review for this film on their website, but whatever. I'm probably wasting my time typing this up. I had a much larger review but I deleted it now.

Anyway, this film is pretty average. Kids stumble across a shortcut in the woods where a crazy old man lives, and apparently he likes killing dogs (and -as we find out later- people as well).

He's not a particularly scary enemy either- more like a creepy old sheltered loner guy who needs to get out more often.

The acting skills from all the teenagers is really bad and the storyline is pretty boring as well. Most of the storyline is spent sneaking into the old mans property and trying to discover secrets about him. The teens never do anything remotely interesting though, and so the storyline ends up feeling completely pointless.

At least the killing scenes at the end qualify as watchable material, otherwise I'd give it a rating even lower than a 2. Yes that's right- a zero, haha.

The Faculty - Light (Not necessarily a bad thing) (4.0)

This is a PG-13 Movie. So the level of Gore is minimal. But this doesn't mean it doesn't scare the hell out of you, many times in different ways. On the contrary, this actually results in an interesting situation for the film maker: Since they can't take the easy way most horror movie makers take nowadays and do just gore, gore, gore and zero substance, they're kind of forced to craft a good story and good tension scenes, to replace the scary factor of the gore they can't really show you, and ultimately this benefits the movie greatly. This movie is kind of a hybrid between thriller and slasher film, all in an entertaining package. It held my interest from beginning to end and had a couple of nice twists at the end. A solid offering from Scary Madison (Adam Sandler's venture as a producer into scary movies). It's not the best scary movie I've ever seen, but I had a great time watching it and it was way more entertaining that many gorier movies out there today. (And don't get me wrong: I LOVE GORE. But If I have to choose between gore and a well written, scripted, interesting movie, I choose the later any day of the week)

Interesting (4.0)

With The Shortcut you *believe* you know what's going to happen, that it's just another cliched teen horror movie, and while in some senses it is, it diverts from what you expect and prove itself by twisting itself around so that by the time the end comes...you never saw it coming. And I appreciate that in a movie.

SURPRISING SHORTCUT (4.0)

A PG-13 horror movie that eschews gore and sex for low-key suspense. While sluggish at times, the movie offers teens who aren't so obnoxious we want them dead and the acting is above average. As for the twist ending, there are subtle clues early on that justify this ending which still took me by surprise. I liked this movie..a good break from all the "torture" flicks and unnecessary remakes.