Directed by Brett Simmons. Starring Devon Graye, Wes Chatham, C.J. Thomason, Tammin Sursok. Horror, US, 79m, cert 18.

Released on UK DVD and Blu Ray by G2 Pictures / Koch Media on 21st March 2011, £15.99/£19.99.

A group of college students become stranded when their car runs off the road after hitting a flock of crows. They awake from the accident to find one of their number has dissappeared. Travelling as they were on back road and now surrounded by corn plantations, the group splits. Half head into the fields to look for thier missing friend, half stay with the vehicle. However it seems their is something in the corn stalking them, and it may be of supernatural origin.

HUSK is an entry in the rather specialised killer scarecrow sub-genre of horror and obviously also owes a huge debt to the CHIlDREN OF THE CORN franchise (minus the creepy kids). Expanded from his 2005 short film by writer/director Brett Simmons this is a solid but resolutely unspectacular film. Even at a breif 79 minutes HUSK feels padded from its short film origins. A ghostly back story is mixed into the standard stalk-and-slash mechanics of the film’s plot, but is ultimately rather dull and very poorly integrated. One of the characters suddenly is struck with an attack of the expositional visions that might serve to move the plot along, but come from out of nowhere.

The cast is as good looking as ever for this sort of thing, all could get work modelling for Abercrombie & Fitch, including the supposedly nerdy one. However their parts are underwritten and conform so lazily to slasher stereotypes that it is hard to to care about their fates.

Ultimately this is a solidly average film that ticks the genre boxes but has nothing fresh to bring to the party. If you’ve seen more than five horror films in your life, you have probably seen all its tricks already.

Stuart Barr.

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