Review: The Canadoo

(imdb.com)

For years, creators have tried turning America's passion for reality television into effective and scary horror stories. Television shows like Siberia and movies like Man Vs. and Wrong Turn 2, have all had limited success capturing the melodramatic, but engrossing nature of broadcasted reality. The recently released movie, The Canadoo, follows suit.

As noted, The Canadoo follows a group of five hopefuls as they venture into the forest for the chance of fame and fortune. There's a pretty stereotypical typecast between the aggressive pretty boy, the fame-seeking blonde, the nerdy introvert and the kind, small town girl. However, each is provided some more dimensionality as the film unravels. The film stars Tyler Buckingham (Megan Leavey) as aggressive pretty boy, Shawn, Ali Roberts (The Takeover), as the fame-seeker, Taylor, Alina Lia (Immortalis) as the kindhearted Ashley, Teddy Cole (Vice Principals) as nerd, Adam, and Drey Wigfall (The Brides of Sodom) as Derrick.


The cast is pretty phenomenal. Despite being relatively unknown, each provide far more to their characters than anyone could expect. The bonding sequence around the fire is one of the movie's most enjoyable and grounded sequences. It gives depth to characters that otherwise carry on as one dimensional. It feels the most real and would fall more in line with what actual reality programming attempts to do and is successful, largely in part, because of the cast. Even when they seem to fall into shaky territory, they wrap back enough to provide some sense of realness.  



The Canadoo takes a lot of time to get anywhere near a horror film. The majority of the film is spent giving the characters conversational moments, rather than building tension amongst them and the wilderness. For a non-horror film, this would be entirely fine, but when the movie has less than thirty minutes left, you begin wondering why the "scares" are amounted to a handful of rustlings in the bushes around the group's camp. The chasing in the dark scenes aren't fantastic, but more so because the camerawork seems pulled from the 90s. The eventual unveiling is scary and inexplicable, but it is the wilderness, so who knows what happens out there.


The Canadoo is cheaply made and sometimes leans toward mediocrity. Like the aforementioned films and shows that feature contestants taking part in reality television, there's something inherently missing. The fact that the cast isn't real, the things that happen to them aren't even close to real and the show they're featured on also isn't real make for something filtered through too many lenses. It's got some benefits; its characters - while sometimes flat - have a certain draw to them, the setting - while plain - is incredibly desolate and the plot - while predictable and not always scary - is enjoyable. The Canadoo isn't the most intelligent or terrifying film made, but it never becomes something unwatchable. 5 out of 10.