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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2011
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Adam Wingard
Genre:	Home invasion
Starring:	Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853739
Tagline:	The Pack Is Back.
Favourite line:	"Thanks for the help by the way."

No home invasion movies for bloody ages, then two come along in one summer.

The plot:
A well to do young American sort is bringing his new rough and ready Australian girlfriend to meet his family, nervous about what they will think. His elder brother doesn't take long before questioning their relationship, particularly the age difference - he is some years older than she - and, just as it seems a full fledged argument is about to break out, proceedings are interrupted by one of the guests getting a crossbow bolt right through the fucking brain.
No-one for pudding, then?
With the house under attack, mobile phones apparently inoperative, and nobody for miles around, the family are besieged by knife, gun and bow wielding maniacs sporting animal masks to preserve their anonymity.
What do they want?
How can they be stopped?
And precisely how did they know the family would be gathering that very evening?
Well?

Strange in tone this as, the further into the frenetic action we get, the more tongue in cheek it becomes. Usually it's the other way around, of course, with the jokes front loaded, but the choice to switch the format works well, adding some jet black humour to the spurts of blood as heads are caved in willy-nilly.
In Sharni Vinson as Erin, the heroine from the Outback - a slight spoiler but, honestly, if you don't figure out who the Final Girl will be about ten minutes in, you're really not trying - we have a spunky, feisty, almost comically masculine female lead who delivers frankly preposterous lines of dialogue with such straight-faced conviction it's difficult not to fall in love with her, just a little bit. Honestly, she's up there with Sigourney in terms of muscular leading ladies, kicking serious arse, and it's wonderful to watch.
Filmed way back in 2011, this has taken two years to hit the screens both here in the UK, and Stateside, which seems odd as, with plenty of twists along the way - though admittedly, most of them are telegraphed well in advance - this is a rollicking, bollocking, frolicking horror black comedy that delivers precisely what it sets out to; splatter, chuckles and the occasional wince.
Liked it rather a lot, actually.
So there.