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35 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :- Serkis in undeniably the star of this film, 12 February 2008 Author: jess-154 from england
Director Paul Andrew Williams wanted to "write a film that cost no money and was all set in one place". And the first sixty or so minutes stuck to this agenda pretty well; Two brothers kidnap the daughter (Jennifer Ellison) of a wealthy man, he sends out two crazy Chinese guys to kill them, nerdy brother Peter (Reece Shearsmith) looses the all important mobile phone and older hard-man brother David (Andy Serkis) swears a lot, all in the confines of a deserted cottage. The dialogue is just about snappy enough to keep this interesting. Not much to be said for the camera work – but it does kinda add to the atmosphere. And then they end up in another cottage and the blood bath begins.It's pretty obvious why they cast Ellison: she has big bouncy boobs and her harsh liverpoodlian accent is juxtaposed perfectly with her blonde hair and Barbie doll face. No one really cares that her script rarely ventures beyond words too rude to publish here – the camera generally focuses on her chest/backside with the occasional headbut thrown in. Shame really; I was hoping she'd amaze us all with her diverse acting talent, but I guess it's a case of you can take the girl out of Brookside but you won't get an amazing actress out of a soap star.Serkis in undeniably the star of this film. The perfect gangster with a heart, his sincerity and charm kept me watching throughout. I'm not entirely sure why he chose to do The Cottage – perhaps, like me, he was hoping this would be one of those rare things; a funny independent British comedy. But unfortunately it just felt like Williams had taken The Chain Sore Massacre and Hot Fuzz, cut out the best bits, stuck the leftovers in a blender and then forgot to cook it properly.By all means go see this if you like blood, guts and rolling heads, just don't expect any intellect in the script.
21 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :- Horrific fun! Reece Shearsmith shines in excellent black comedy, 5 February 2008 Author: LittleScarletBlue from United Kingdom
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
'The Cottage' is an intriguing, genre mixing film, full of twists and turns - an exhilarating 90 minutes. Its gory and funny but one that anchors the splatter comedy to deftly drawn characters enduring a heightened reality one hell of a night.The nightmarish black comic horror is skillfully delivered, with the gorefest conventions given a darkly comic twist. The film's tongue-in-cheek exuberance humorously balances the grisly nature of the horrific injuries that are inflicted on screen.What makes 'The Cottage' so distinctive is the unusual approach it takes for a film where a gore infested climax is the pay off. At the heart of the film, and what makes the film stand out for me, is the emotional investment in the two main characters. You really do end up caring what happens to its key protagonists, the brothers David and Peter.There is an emotional depth about them that made me wish even more time could have been spent with the pair, their arguments and interplay, exploring their relationship and its bickering background.The relationship between the brothers, brilliantly played by Andy Serkis and Reece Shearsmith, is a highlight of the film. Their fraught fraternal relationship has a believability about it which grabs you from the moment they appear on screen & the scenes between them crackle with tension, humour and emotion.Serkis's character is one used to being in control, but his tough, hard streetwise nature is under pressure almost immediately as the kidnapping plan begins to unravel, giving way to repressed anger and growing frustration. Although Andy Serkis's David is forced out of his comfort zone as the plot unfolds, Reece Shearsmith's Peter is out of his depth from the start, reluctantly brought into a world he knows nothing about and ill equipped to deal with it at any level. His timidity is accompanied by a moralising disapproval of his brother.Into this mix are thrown two more characters, the kidnapped Tracey and her black sheep stepbrother Andrew (nicely played by Jennifer Ellison and Steven O'Donnell) They are the natural comic grotesques of the movie, hindering and exasperating by extreme measures, a contrasting comic counterpoint to the carefully delineated characters of David and Peter. Much of the comedy comes from the dynamics of their enforced relationship and how they react to the ever worsening situation they find themselves thrust into.Both the quarrelsome brothers are superbly played, but Reece Shearsmith is truly outstanding. His performance is beautifully nuanced with great comic timing and skillful characterisation. Peter is by turns wimpish, pernickety, argumentative, pathetic, vulnerable. He's hilariously yet tragically out his depth. Shearsmith's performance really holds the film together - it's brilliantly subtle and multi-layered. He brings so much to the role, not only comedically but emotionally too. He gives the film its heart, its pathos.The bloody battlefield climax at the farmhouse sees the gory finale delivered with aplomb - the comedy and horror unfold with beautiful pace and precision. Even here, amid the bloodletting, there is a moment of the unexpected and unusual which makes 'The Cottage' stand out. Its a low key, almost poetic scene which seals a growing understanding between the brothers. The badly injured pair contemplate their demise as they look up at a star filled night sky. Its a moment of humanity amid the carnage, sad and touching because its a hoped for reconciliation that will never happen.'The Cottage' is a very entertaining blending of comedy and horror with a depth not usually associated with the genre and its directed with real confidence and verve.There is a sense of sadness in the midst of the horrific fun of 'The Cottage' which lingers in the memory afterwards because its central characters matter and you care what happens to them - a rarity for the horror genre which marks the film out. Its original approach, well evoked atmosphere, at times comically and bloody surreal , the blackly ironic pitch and top notch performances by the two leads, especially a brilliant Reece Shearsmith, make 'The Cottage' a comedy horror whose genre blending works a memorable treat!
22 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :- Well worth a visit!, 24 February 2008 Author: Superbeasto from United Kingdom
British horror movies have always had a unique sense of humour, with "Severance" being a good recent example of savvy brit film-makers throwing laughs and gore together to great effect. This carries on that tradition, and in Reece Shearsmith they're blessed with an actor whose comic chops are well up to scratch. Andy Serkis is no slouch either, playing the straight man brilliantly as a mobster who's hard as nails but a little fuzzy on the inside.The laughs are pretty reliable, and as the situation goes from bad to worse a lot of those laughs come from the (severe) misfortune of the poor souls on screen, and the blend of splatter and slapstick is well tuned. Jennifer Ellison does grate after a while, her constant use of swearing amusing at times but often a little irritating. Still, she has a fantastic body on her and that ball shrivellingly tough accent to fall back on, so her presence isn't entirely unwelcome. As a comedy it works extremely well, and as a gore movie there's some inventively wince-inducing moments, and with the balance just right "The Cottage" is well worth a visit.
13 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :- Mindless, twisted mayhem!, 27 April 2008 Author: shady402 from West Midlands, England
The best way to sum up this film is 'interesting...!' The violence, blood and gore is fantastic. If you want to see people decapitated and hacked to bits and want to laugh at the same time, this recent British horror comedy is definitely for you. The main characters are fun, likable and witty, Andy Serkis is fantastic, the dialogue is hilarious and the film is just entertaining from start to finish.However, the storyline is quite simply all over the place. It's an incoherent mess to be exact! The film just twists and turns in different directions raising a number of questions, which it then leaves unanswered. Characters and subplots are introduced and then forgotten about. However, I'm guessing most people would not want to see this for the plot so if you just want some mindless, gory fun, go and see this.
34 out of 61 people found the following comment useful :- Occasionally funny...but I really wouldn't bother., 17 March 2008 Author: DJ Graham from Arsenal, London
Comment declaration: I am a genuine viewer with no intention of distorting the IMDb ratings to make people go and watch it (yes...the PR corruption of this website annoys me). Anyway...For some reason I fell for the hype and thought this would be something different. I went along to the Kino on my own and had a big bowl of popcorn ready for the best of British.The film started very predictably and there was nothing new standing out. No interesting camera work, script or imagination.I like Serkis and Ellison and I reckon they both did an OK job. I liked the way Ellison didn't give a hoot how she looked on camera. Flab, bad skin and cellulite...it was all there. Good to see she is a pro about the acting and not just glossy. Her character was mean and moody and made me smile. But it was all predictable physical comedy that relied a lot on the "C" word. Not a nice word to use a lot.I was aware it was going to be a kidnap followed by a killer but I couldn't work out the twist...and then I found out there just wasn't one. It was just plain and predictable with some very dull gore scenes. There is nothing new at all worth mentioning here. No imagination or attempt to break the cliché. As for the ending...well I really didn't see the point. Very flat and I was glad I could go.I would like to say I was left with more questions than answers but it was just such a non-event that I really didn't give it a seconds thought.How will I remember this film? Serkiss looked very mean. Ellison was nastily funny and had a great bod in the back of the car. Very odd second half that didn't really go anywhere.Very very disappointing. Rating 5/10 (because the head butting scene made me smile).
8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Well regardless of the IMDb score i thought it was a good film., 15 March 2008 Author: postmanvendetta from United Kingdom
Original no. Tasteful no. But this film is still worth seeing. The films plot line revolves around a wannabe gangster, his sissy brother and a big fat dumb bloke, kidnapping this big gangsters daughter in order to hold her off for a ransom of 100,000 pounds. However things go terribly wrong and eventually after a slow but subtly funny beginning (the two brothers act it out like a bickering married couple and the fat dumb bloke cant help but to make you smile) the main characters stumble across this cottage hosted by a deformed, demented farmer who in many cringe-worthy ways (i.e heads getting split in 2 by garden spades) picks them off. Like i said it was never going to win awards for originality, but i laughed at this film in the same way i did to Shaun of the dead, which to me makes it worhty for at least one viewing, but people who love black comedies (like me) will definitely want to see this again. YWNA
9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :- It's a comedy with bite, right to the end., 14 April 2008 Author: JohnRouseMerriottChard from United Kingdom
Two brothers, David & Peter, kidnap Tracey, the daughter of local tough guy gangster Arnie, they hold her to ransom for the sum of £100,000. What they hadn't bargained into the equation is that Tracey is one tough feisty lady, and that a turn of events will lead them to something far more scary than big bad gangster Arnie.This is the second feature from director Paul Andrew Williams, and bearing in mind that his debut effort was the highly lauded gritty drama London To Brighton, it's no surprise to find that some folk are a little bemused as to the genre splicing nature of The Cottage. The Cottage is far more in keeping with Christopher Smith's 2006 horror comedy, Severance, and certainly it wouldn't be out of place as a double bill with that criminally undervalued picture.Very much a film of two halves, this picture is likely to prove a very divisive piece, and it will {has} only find an audience based on word of mouth alone, you will be hard pressed to find any sort of press marketing that will prepare you for the type of genre fusion film you are getting. Already, based on the comments written on this site thus far, you can see that some people were confused {or annoyed} by the tonal shift for the second half of the film. The first half sees poles apart brothers, David & Peter swapping comedy dialogue as they whisk thru a number of exchanges and circumstances with the marvellously volatile Tracey. Whilst the second part of the picture hits you over the head with a quick switch to horror formula that has catering fulfilment for the gore junkies amongst us. And this is where the problem lays with many, why didn't the film stay as a kidnap farce,? why didn't it set its stall out to be a horror film from the off,? There is no denying that the films high points come with the horror moments, but the film is first and foremost a comedy from the first reel to the cheeky end of credits sequence. And as deliciously sick as the gore shift is, The Cottage never once takes its tongue out of its bloody cheek. It's obvious that Paul Andrew Williams is having fun here and he hopes his audience will as well. View it as an all encompassing comedy/horror/thriller in that order and you wont go far wrong.Andy Serkis plays David, the tough brother of the two, with Serkis doing a wonderful line in both visual and vocal comedy. This benefits Reece Shearsmith as Peter, a character so far under the thumb he can barely be seen. Shearsmith feeds of Serkis to seal the comedy deal of this odd brotherly couple. British tabloid fave Jennifer Ellison plays Tracey, literally swearing for England to have the audience divided as to if they want her to survive or not! But it's a gutsy show from her and one hopes she ventures into this territory a bit more often. There is nothing new or fresh here, and this wont win any awards even in its homeland of England, but it is FUN, and it shows a director clearly intent on making films from different genres. 7/10
8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :- thoughts such as "for better or worse" comes to mind, 17 May 2008 Author: beregic (beregic@msn.com) from Canada
i guess i should call it a sarcastic horror-comedy show with "vintage" elements. it actually starts as a kidnapping thriller and ends up as a "traditional" horror. only the last 30 minutes could be considered as "horror".a few things must be said. the pace of the movie is slow and sometimes very slow. but if you keep that in mind and you are in mood for some "dark" comedy you might as well enjoy it as i did.compared to "Shaun of the Dead" is not as funny but a bit more scarier. something to watch out of boredom and it might entertain you in that case( like when you busy with something else and need a background distraction that WILL get at least a few "gigs" out of you). overall i was not disappointed.this feature is missing a defined plot and i am not sure what that "point" would have been here( or could have), other then some really funny sarcastic jokes and some gore.the main actor to watch here is Andy Serkis as one of the 2 brothers and the mastermind before the kidnapping.he does some great acting when everything goes wrong and it is quiet funny to watch him deal with his naturally idiotic brother( which at one point even personalizes Hitler, literally, but the character does not seem to be aware of that). there are also a few other characters but they not contribute much to the plot except for the "bad" one. the soundtrack is actually excellent in creating those horror "vintage" moods.
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- A bloody brilliant combo of laughs and shocks., 24 May 2008 Author: Scott LeBrun from Winnipeg, Canada
This irreverent movie starts off as a comedic crime caper: David (Andy Serkis, absolutely fantastic) convinces his high-strung and whiny brother Peter (Reece Shearsmith) to participate in the kidnapping of an underworld figures' daughter (Jennifer Ellison as Tracey). But everything degenerates into an everything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong scenario.Then, at about the halfway point, we're thrust into backwoods horror territory, as our unlucky main characters wander into the domain of a mutated, hulking "farmer" whose interior decorator must have been Leatherface.This interesting meshing of genres manages to be something fairly unique and refreshing. The sense of the whole plot being a comedy of errors actually holds for the duration, even when the horror portion comes into play. It's never really scary or suspenseful (although atmosphere and production design are excellent) and it comes off as more of a goof on horror movies than straight horror. But, for me, it worked. It was overall quite engaging and sometimes very funny. (It helps that the humor here, some of it deliciously dark, is actually intentional.) Gore fans can also take delight in a decent serving of splatter. Character relationships are vivid and volatile and the characters are actually interesting and compelling even when at their most unflattering; Peter definitely has the potential to annoy some viewers.Serkis does a real bang-up job; known primarily now for his work with Peter Jackson, he shows here just how much range and talent he has. But Shearsmith, Ellison (whose character is incredibly feisty and foul-mouthed), and also Steve O'Donnell as the pathetic Andrew all take turns walking away with the scenes. The fact that this movie is a good showcase for these actors is another bonus. It's superb, too, to see "Pinhead" himself, Doug Bradley of the "Hellraiser" franchise, in a nice little cameo role.Be prepared for a dumb but amusing post-closing credits sequence that is just one final indicator of the films' blatantly humorous style.9/10
7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- The Leatherface Farmer, 9 August 2008 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
When David (Andy Serkis) and his clumsy brother Peter (Reece Shearsmith) kidnap the daughter of a powerful gangster, they bring Tracey (Jennifer Ellison) to a cottage in the countryside in the trunk of their car. Peter calls Tracey's father and asks a ransom of one hundred thousand pound to be delivered to her step-brother Andrew (Steve O'Donnell). When the bag is delivered to the moron Andrew, he does not check the content and is followed to the remote location by two Chinese hit-men hired by Tracey's father. When the abductors discover that the bag has only paper, David drives to a nearby village to make a phone call to demand the money. When he returns, he finds Andrew fainted and later that Tracey had reverted the situation and escaped with his brother as hostage. Meanwhile an insane and deformed farmer has just killed the killers and Tracey and Peter are heading to his farmer seeking a phone to call her father. I had a great expectation with "The Cottage" but I found it disappointing. The black-humor never works except in the two very last scenes (in the end of the credits there is a last one). The characters Peter and Andrew are stupid and annoying and the psychopath serial-killer is a rip-off of Leatherface. In the end I found this movie only reasonable and my vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Cabana Macabra" ("Macabre Cottage")
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