The Shortcut

There is nothing necessarily wrong with a harmless horror film, even one that is made for younger audiences. The Shortcut is one such a film, as it is a PG-13 movie made for the type of pubescent audience that would probably prefer safe scares. However, where such films as The Monster Squad or Gremlins did a fine job in their light approach, The Shortcut is not only immature in its sensibility, but also in its typical, clichéd, and much lacking storytelling.

The Shortcut may at first seem to have a fun premise: the title route provides the premise of a quick jaunt through the woods near a school that often gets murderous for animals and humans alike. However, the film quickly seems to go in circles, and the plot moves along unnaturally which renders the at-first-fun film pretty uninspired, uneven, and lacking both a scary and a truly funny spirit.

Although there might be a few quips by the mostly likeable characters, it garners merely a polite half-smile, but never any true laughs...and since the scares are all telegraphed for experienced audiences, The Shortcut never generates scares or dread. This could be ok, however, if it had some sort of tension or emotion to grasp onto, but it lacks this even in the anticipative way.

Plot wise, the film mainly has the characters looking for a sign one of their friend's dog. Problem is, they say they are sure the dog is dead, and even if you understand they are looking for evidence of this animal cruelty, it still seems a rather childish plot ploy.

Filled with many false jump scares, The Shortcut is also inline often with pop culture and teeny-bopper self-satirical references. At times it even insults its audience, like in the out-of-the-blue twist ending.

As aforementioned, the characters are mostly likeable even despite their shallow stereotypes. It is also interesting to note that the main old-man villain shows a slight resemblance to Michael Berryman of the original The Hills Have Eyes. Yet, the positives aspects only go so far.

In the final act, The Shortcut takes every normal mechanics of the fright genre, and each plot point is extremely predictable, at least up until that tacked on ending that just seems preposterous. One realizes that The Shortcut is a film that took its title way to literally for all the wrong reasons. It makes the audience know that it is never ok to make a shortcut in film... especially if its leaves behind all the credible genre aspects in its run to the finish line.