Shortcut [2020]

This movie left me with so many questions. Most of them from the first about 30 minutes of it. We start with a random teen in a yellow jacket being chased by something somewhere in the woods. Random and won't tell you anything until much, much, later. I accepted this as the intro. I was, of course, curious about the identity of the teen, but figured that they would tell me later. No, the important questions start after it cuts to the main cast. 

We get five random teens on a bus with a driver. They are the only passengers. And this is where the questions start. 

Where is the bus coming from? 

Where is the bus going? 

Why are there only the five teens on it?

And that's just the beginning. The teens, we get the gang kid, the nerdy girl, fat nerdy boy, "popular" girl, and the emo kid. I say emo, but that's not necessarily true. It is simply the closest description I can give you from the initial shot of the kids without getting too long-winded. So for simplicity's sake, we'll call him the emo kid. Even if his name is Nolan. 

As the bus carries them forward, they come across a blocked road. By a fallen tree. And we get a shot at a dead body part. Doesn't seem too important, probably more for the atmosphere at this point.

It looks like they won't be able to continue but luckily, the bus driver seems to know the area well and knows a shortcut. Hence the name of the movie. So he backs up a little and goes off to a side road. Unfortunately, after a while, that one is blocked too. By a dead animal. 

So the bus driver goes to move the carcass to the side. And we see him drag it pretty far into the field or whatever it is. 

Why would he drag it that far? 

If it were me, I would only drag it just far enough for the bus to be able to pass through. I know that they needed to do it this way to further the plot, but seriously, sometimes people do some really stupid shit. The atmosphere at this point was pretty creepy. A lot of fog, the middle of nowhere, a small group of people! 

Just once, I would like to see a horror movie that breaks all the tropes. A movie where the group stays together at all costs, where the group runs away from the danger, where no idiot splits off to go somewhere alone! 

Still, even though we get all the standard horror movie tropes, the movie is pretty good actually. The kids have moments of some sound logic, they don't abandon one of their own when she goes missing, they figure shit out and most importantly, they don't die!

Yes, all five of them survive. Not so much the driver. But that's kinda not fully his fault. We also get a serial killer or some shit like that. Your typical bad guy with a gun hijacking the bus when the driver is disposing of the carcass. He dies too. Same monster. 

There's a monster. Yes, that's a fact. Deal with it. It's a horror movie. Most horror movies have some kind of a monster in them. 

So, for all the questions I have, the movie wasn't bad and I enjoyed it. And I would definitely recommend it. 

And if it seems like this was written in several segments, you would be right. I watched the movie months ago. Or, a month ago. According to the date on this when I saved it as a draft. Though I think it was longer than that. Maybe it took a while to even start writing this. Oh well. 

Still, if you're into horror movies and need some inspiration, Shortcut is a good movie and worth a watch or two. Give it a chance and then come back and tell me if you liked it, okay?

~AnnElfwind

Written on the 24th of June, 2021