And lo! On the third day He watched The Shed, a Shudder original…and it was pretty good!
Vampire movies are rarely anything special, and it’s by far my least favorite horror subgenre. I feel like we’ve seen every iteration of vampires by now—the classic vamp (Dracula), the badass vamps (The Lost Boys), the sparkly vamps (Twilight), and everything in between. So how does a movie like director Frank Sabatella's The Shed stand apart from the standard fare?
For starters, the vampire gore fest takes a back seat to the high school angst and relationship building between characters. The main character, Stan, is a standard high school loser who discovers a vampire staying in his uncle’s shed, and he decides to trap it rather than let it go. When the vampire inevitably feeds on someone who goes too close to the shed, Stan’s bullied best friend decides to use the vampire to dispose of everyone who’s wronged the two of them…a plan which quickly goes tits-up.
The movie wasn’t particularly great, nor was it by any means bad. If it had leaned heavier into “Jack Ketchum” territory and raised the stakes a bit more (pun intended, har-har), I probably would’ve enjoyed it more. However, for as gory as The Shed gets, it’s rarely anything noteworthy.
A scene which really stuck out to me was the confrontation between Stan, his best friend Dommer, and the bully who’s about to meet their bloodthirsty new pet. The actors did a great job with this scene, and the tension worked better than in most other scenes. This is what I wanted to see more of.
To sum it up, I loved the idea of The Shed but wasn’t thrilled with the execution. Maybe it deserves a re-watch, and maybe the trailer raised my expectations a little too high, but it’s not a movie I’d go out of my way to show someone.
I will say, however, the creature effects were superb. Nobody glittered, so at least there’s that.
6/10
Throughout the month of October, I’ll be reviewing 31 movies I’ve never seen before. Is there an excellent movie you think I haven’t seen? Tell me in the comments below, and I’ll check it out!
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