PEEPHOLE REVIEW: Meadowoods(2009)

The Kids Aren't Alright

Another band of merry filmmakers has, once again, leaped headlong onto the "found footage" bandwagon that got rolling after the success of The Blair Witch Project. This flick features an interesting enough premise  --  three bored kids who decide to kill a random person -- that touches on the exceedingly disturbing trend amongst middle class kids, who are bored with their stable suburban lifestyle.  With a huge sense of entitlement, these kinds of kids believe that they deserve to be able to act out as they wish -- probably because some pop culture idol told them it was okay -- and their bloated egos lead them to believe that they'll be superstars when the world finds out that they are really just good kids who needed to be heard.

Do you think the audience understands how bored we are?

Meadowoods had the opportunity to demonstrate just how idle and misguided these kids are, but trashes any sense of sensibility by seemingly giving these deluded fools a credible voice (the similarly themed The Final made the same mistake).  The filmmakers, while demonstrating just how creepy kids like this could be, seemed also to be empathetic to them.  I don't begrudge a filmmaker who attempts to humanize the monsters who walk among us.  Actually, I admire the movies that can make us pause.  Some of the best horror movies can make the common person come to an understanding of why a killer is what he is.  But, Meadowoods ain't nearly in that league. 

To start with, the story is nonexistent.  What we have here is really just the kids sitting around trying to convince themselves, and each other (and us), that what they're doing has some real merit.  The dialogue is amazingly laughable, as these kids try and sound creepy and oh-so-unaffected.  And the action, if you can call it action, is so underplayed, as to not have the actors remove themselves from the set frame of the camera (remember, when he pulls the gun on you, don't scramble out past your spot).  What we end up with is just another bunch of fanboys who have convinced themselves that their ripoff is somehow original.