Cottage Country (2013)

 

Cottage Country is a horror comedy from Canada which makes it interesting because if the movie sucks, they will be the first to apologize.  Honestly, I have no idea how this movie is over ten years old, and I’ve never heard of it before.  Brought to us by director Peter Wellington (Paging Mr. Darcy and Joe’s So Mean to Josephine) and producer Frank Siracusa who gave us Hobo With a Shotgun and Triangle that I reviewed earlier in the month.  Starring as Cammie Ryan is Malin Akerman (Twin Peaks and Watchmen) who is going on vacation with her boyfriend Todd.  Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale Vs Evil and Escape Room) stars as Todd who is taking Cammie to his family’s cabin by the lake for a weekend getaway just for the two of them.  While there he plans to ask her to marry him.  Things begin to go wrong when his brother Salinger shows up with his Russian girlfriend Masha.  Salinger is played by Dan Petronijevic (Spiral: From the Book of Saw and Soldier’s Girl) and Lucy Punch (Bad Teacher and Dinner for Schmucks) is Masha. 

 

Salinger is a loser, and Masha might be into some weird stuff.  Todd and Salinger do not get along under usual circumstances but now Salinger is threatening to ruin the entire weekend.  Todd OKed the visit with his parents and in fact has the cabin reserved for the weekend.  I’m not making this up, Todd created an online reservation portal so everyone knows who has the cabin reserved and when.  Todd doesn’t want to propose with Salinger and Masha there so he tells Salinger they will have to leave the cabin.  Salinger doesn’t give a shit and tells Todd he is staying.  This doesn’t go well, and Salinger tells Todd that he has invited a bunch of friends to the cabin for a party.  When Todd and Salinger have a heated argument, Salinger ends up with an axe in neck.  Now Todd and Cammie must act quick to cover up the accidental murder and still have their romantic weekend.  What follows is a comedy of errors. 

 

 

Cottage Country is good but it’s missing that certain something that puts it over the top and make it memorable for me.  It doesn’t stand out and in fact while I just watched this less than 48 hours ago, I’m having a hard time remembering everything that happened.  It is funny and it does have a nice little twist at the end but like I said it’s missing something.  I’ll give it two and a half poisonous mushrooms out of five, I really wanted to like this more but I feel let down by this a little.  Don’t get me wrong it’s a strong two and a half I’d even say it’s a weak three but I’ve been letting movies slide this month and I decided this was the time to put the hammer down.  Just because it’s a horror film that I watched at Halloween doesn’t mean it gets extra credit.