A group of friends gather in a cabin in the woods on Halloween. While you may think these gaggle of goofs would be fodder for some masked lunatic, they are instead stalked n’ slayed by a skin stealing monster that can steal their identities.
David Axe (who penned The Theta Girl, which I reviewed right here) brings us a tale that is both grindhouse and social commentary with Shed. While on the surface this is a creature feature that contains a healthy dollop of what many of us love the most…namely buckets of blood and naked flesh, all wrapped up in with “cabin in the woods/slasher” tropes…this picture has a bit more on it’s mind.
The aforementioned monster is female, but isn’t afraid to take on the persona of men and could be a veiled allegory to the experiences of trans people and male or female gender roles being fluid, and that’s a statement I can get behind.
As a warning; Shed, like the The Theta Girl mentioned previous, is not afraid to be downright weird. Disjointed pacing, bizarre dialog and character interactions, odd humor, and off-kilter editing choices lead to a true fever dream experience which only heightens the psychotronic effect the flick has upon the viewer.
All of that being said, some of you may be put off on Shed‘s more unpolished aspects such as dodgy sound and a few iffy performances. As you lot well know, none of that means jack and/or shit to your’s cruelly, but some of your mileage may vary.
To sum it up, Shed is a creature feature that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeve, but isn’t afraid to absolutely scramble shit up and spray the resulting mess right in your face…a true breath of fresh (though fetid) air for adventurous horror hounds!
