Get Away

Get Away poster

Two hundred years ago the Swedish island of Svalta was home to a colony; allegedly, due to plague, the isolated island was quarantined by the British under the guise of protecting the people, but the longer the quarantine went and the more starved and desperate the people of the island became until, driving mad by the hunger, they turned to cannibalism.

Now two centuries later the people of the island remember this event with the Karantan, an annual performance commemorating their bloody history, which Richard and Susan have decided is perfect for their little family get away with their two teenage children, unwilling to be dissuaded despite the consternation of the increasingly hostile locals; they’ve booked an Air B&B after all!

Get Away; Richard and Susan (Nick Frost and Aisling Bea) and their children arrive on the island of Svalta.

Following his well-known partnerships which created the Cornetto Trilogy among others, Get Away is Nick Frost’s first solo writing project, directed by Steffen Haars and unsurprisingly a black comedy horror with nods to classics along the way, echoes of The Wicker Man throughout the island and the locals at the ferry port reminiscent of villagers warning to avoid Castle Dracula, and just like with Jonathan Harker that advice is ignored.

Frost playing patriarch Richard, determined to enjoy the holiday to which he has committed both his family and hard cash, he is joined by Aisling Bea as Susan, playing well against each other as the couple who gratingly calling each other Mummy and Daddy, the actors saying this was a jab at irritating couples who condescendingly do that only to find that as parents they now do it themselves in their own lives.

Get Away; Susan (Aisling Bea) doing the touristy thing one does when on holiday.

With daughter Jessie played by Maisie Ayres, subtle and superb in her tense interactions with wonderfully creepy guest house owner Matts (Eero Milonoff), the viewer is never sure who is teasing or pursuing who, while Sam (Sebastian Croft) is suitably annoying, frustrating his parents, sister and the audience, the cast encouraged by Haars to play around on set to find their characters and family dynamic.

The wider ensemble conveying the insular community with the look of a small gene pool with hints at keeping some things very much “in the family,” elderly matriarch Klara (Anitta Suikkari) a commanding presence with an obsession with the Karantan and, it seems, a taste for human flesh, the build-up of “creepy islanders being creepy” feels stretched at times but the bloodbath of the final act is worth the wait, Get Away an entertaining light comedy folk horror although it never reaches the level of Frost’s cult classic Shaun of the Dead.

Get Away will be available on Sky Cinema from Friday 10th January

Get Away; the villagers of the island of Svalta have guests so rarely, they like to entertain them.

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