Review: Shrooms

Dir. Paddy Breathnach, 2007, Vertigo Films

Five US college friends trek to Ireland for the dual purpose of meeting up with a local buddy and sampling the 'magic mushrooms' that grow wild in the woodlands surrounding a long-disused orphanage. When one of the friends accidentally ingests a deathcap mushroom - once used by druids to commune with the dead and see into dimensions beyond ours - she begins to experience visions in which her friends are murdered one-by-one; visions that begin to come true. Who is the killer? A madman? Or something worse? Or are all of these events merely the imaginings of a drug-addled mind?

Shrooms is one of those low-budget horror movies that starts off so well you think maybe you're stumbled on an unheralded classic, but which runs out of steam somewhat towards the end. That's not to say that this isn't an enjoyable ride: the characters are all well-realised, and the central premise quite interesting; some clever camerawork allows the viewer to experience quite disturbingly the hallucinogenic properties of the freaky fungus, and an enjoyable atmosphere of wrongness is maintained throughout. Unfortunately, though, there's ultimately more atmosphere than substance here, and the frenetic visual mish-mash of hallucinatory premonitions, killings and ghostly figures does become simply annoying after a while, rather than - as was likely intended - suspenseful. The conclusion to the movie certainly answers all questions regarding what's really going on, but by that time some viewers may have lost interest.

Still, worth watching, with popcorn on standby.