The Retreat (2005)

A group of college students travels to the cottage of their psychology professor Barren (Peter Carey) in an isolated island as a reward of their teamwork in the research of Barren. They expect to spend the weekend with lots of sex, but a serial-killer turns their party in a nightmare."The Retreat" is a B-movie with a screenplay that shows a bad collection of the usual clichés of horror movies: a place in the middle of nowhere with a serial killer; cell phones do not work; the killer murders one by one, and when they discover the bodies of their friends and consequently the menace, they split to make easier to the assassin; the killer damages their cars and they become trapped in the house; when the killer is dominated, nobody shoots him in the head or hits him with an ax, or try to see his face; they just leave the guy alone with an ax close to him; the girl meets the policeman, but has the most unreasonable attitude; there are many beautiful breasts; the twist in the end is ridiculous. There are more flaws or clichés, but I believe these examples are enough to give a big picture of this film. In addition, there are many stupid lines that seem to be written by a moron or a fan of "American Pie" franchise. The result is the fair IMDb Rating of 2.8 with 228 votes. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "Grito de Pânico" ("Scream of Panic")

The Retreat starts as scientist & school teacher Dr. Barren (Peter Carey) gives a group of his pupil's who have been helping him with his experiments unlimited use of his isolated log cabin situated on a snow covered island in Michigan. Dr. Barren gives a set of keys to Pete (David Craze) & Nicole (Melissa Schuman) who intend to take the other's up there, Pete gets there first with his lot & they are quickly killed off one-by-one by a duffel coated killer. Then Nicole gets there the following day with her group & it's not long before they discover what happened to their friends & are fighting for their lives...Written & directed by Matt Cantu & Lance Kawas & more commonly known under the title Silent Scream one has to say that The Retreat is average at best & a generic boring piece of crap at worst. I have seen loads of these low budget teen slashers & I can write reviews for them in my sleep, I can pretty much Copy & Paste one teen slasher comment & use it on another with a few edits. I mean there's not much to analyze or comment on in this sort of film, there's the isolated location, there's the body & nudity count, there's the question of if the kills are any good, there's the question of whether the killer is of your mysterious human variety as seen in Scream (1996) or your undead one-liner zombie killer like Freddy or Jason & then there's the most pertinent question of the lot are the reasons for everyone to keep splitting up plausible? Well lets address those issues, the location is alright but I never felt that it was that isolated, the body count is surprisingly high with a lot of murders in the first twenty odd minutes before Nicole & her group gets there & the film almost starts again with a new fresh batch of teen victims, the nudity count is reasonable with a bit of lesbianism & some bare female breasts on show, the kills are pretty poor & rather unimaginative & there's a distinct lack of blood or gore, the killer is definitely of the human variety although their identity is very obvious & the reasons for everyone to keep splitting up are moronic & annoying. If that wasn't enough there's a terrible twist within a twist ending that makes no sense whatsoever & leaves you feeling cheated. The Retreat isn't the worst example of the genre, at least it moves along at a reasonable pace & has a decent body-count, but it's hardly a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination & that ending really does suck.This one looks alright actually, it's quite well made with decent cinematography. I would have preferred some proper gore though, the goriest it gets is when someone is decapitated with some wire, there's a severed leg, there's a bloodless axe in the had, a bloodless axe in the back of the neck, an off screen face burning, someones neck is broken, someone is suffocated, someones eyeball is poked out in a scene that lacks any logic, someone is drowned & not a lot else worth mentioning. I wouldn't say there's anything scary here, the kills don't really have any build up & are over pretty quickly.Technically the film is fine, it appears to have decent production values but the budget obviously didn't stretch to proper special effects & the script sucked which is a fundamental problem no matter how well made a film is. Apparently filmed in Harbor Springs in Michigan. The acting is forgettable, no-one is totally awful but on the other hand no-one is particularly good.The Retreat is a pretty average & generic teens slasher for most of it's duration with a duffel coated killer who is a complete rip-off of the killer from Urban Legend (1998) & a terrible tacked on double barrelled twist ending which makes zero sense.

Plot: college kids go to a secluded cabin and suffer lots and lots of death, twist at the end so the film can claim some intellect.Aims of the film: to be a typical "slasher" flick, with everyday kids getting horribly stabbed, beheaded, split in two, slapped and generally treated badly. twist at the end and leave it wide open for a sequel (please no!!!!) Actuality: terrible acting matches the apparently drunken camera-work and is only outshone idiocy of any member of production/post production that didn't realise this and get their name far far away form this thing! the twist is unexpected but also never hinted and therefore impossible to guess! the killer obvious to anyone familiar with the genre, and on the subject of genre i (and 3 friends a saw it with) believe reclassification to "comedy" or, if not "a big hole with no escape" is in order. TP

A group of college kids volunteers for a weekend retreat to help their psychology professor with his research and soon find themselves fighting for their lives against a mysterious hooded killer who's picking them off one by one."The Retreat",which is also known under the title "Silent Scream" is an unoriginal slasher flick shot in the woods of Michigan.The acting is horrible,the action moves at snail's pace and the direction is bad.However there is a decent amount of gore and some of the killings are suitably gruesome.The so-called plot twist at the end is utterly stupid.Give it a look,only if you are a rabid fan of slasher films-just remember that there are far better hack 'em up flicks out there.My very generous rating:4 out of 10.