Horror Movie Review: WTF! (2017)

Directed & written by Peter Herro, WTF! stars Callie Ott, Nicholas James Reilly & Andrea Hunt as a group of twenty-somethings enjoying Spring break. It is available digitally on August 1st 2017 via Midnight Releasing.

Three years prior, Rachel (Ott) was the lone survivor of a brutal murder. A scene that saw her friends & members of her family killed. She has struggled to put it behind her (naturally) with every little thing causing painful flashbacks.

With a boyfriend who seems oblivious to her problems, the only person Rachel is able to turn too is her brother. The only problem there is he isn’t well-liked by her friends who decide to ask Rachel to come with them to a secluded cabin for Spring break.

Initially unsure about going Rachel agrees to go once her brother suggest he invites himself along so he can keep an eye on her.

Once at the cabin, the usual stuff occurs. Nudity, sex, drinking, drugs & lots of obnoxious behaviour from some of the most obnoxious characters I’ve seen in horror for a while. Within the first 20 minutes of this movie, I wanted everyone of them dead.

Thankfully that’s ensured thanks to flash-forward scenes. We see Rachel sitting with two police detectives being quizzed about the murder of her friends.

You see, someone else has decided to join the party. Someone who wants to spill blood with no rhyme or reason behind their choices of victims. Throat silting, stabbing & melting faces off…this killer wants them all dead, especially Rachel. How can the same thing happen to the same person twice? Plain unlucky? Or just an unfortunate coincidence.

WTF! is, for the most part, a standard slasher flick that pokes fun at the clichés involved & then proceeds to do them all anyway. It’s not that clever especially when the ‘twist’ ending has been done many times before & with far better results.

What really harms WTF! is just how awful the characters are. Empty vessels spouting dialogue that genuinely makes you wonder how on earth they could ever have friends. Add in some pretty despicable behaviour & cringe-worthy moments (such as the three dudes starring at boobs as if they’re 13-year olds) & what you’re left with is a group that just leave feeling annoyed.

Rachel, as the final girl, may not be as annoying as the rest but she is bland & uninteresting to watch. Her past isn’t explored enough to make her that much of a sympathetic character but Callie Ott is the best actor of the bunch.

Most of the gore & violence is decent stuff, not particularly exciting save for an excellent face-burning/melting scene. The killer is kept in the shadows for the most part with the reveal coming in the final few minutes. While it is fun to go back & see the clues that you had missed pointing to their identity, it’s hardly a movie that warrants a repeat viewing.

A love letter to slashers, it tries hard but comes up short for entertainment value.