Killbillies

Killbillies (Idila) (2015)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Tomaz Gorkic

Starring: Nina Ivanisin, Lotos Sparovec, Nika Rozman, Sebastian Cavazza, Jurji Drevensek

From: Several Slovenian Companies

A Slovenian horror movie sounds wacky and yet it's true... unfortunately, this movie is less than idyll, which is the English translation of its original title. I talk about it below: 

For Memorial Day yesterday, I thought about watching a movie appropriate for the day; then I realized that this wasn't a thing I had really done before so instead I watched something else and I'll say right now that I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day, as it is a great day to remember those who lost their lives while in the armed forces. Although, maybe I should have watched something that I thought could have been good...

I think this was another movie I stumbled upon while looking at Amazon Prime; that was where I watched this. I did not have high expectations considering its goofy title. At least that was not a translation of its original Slovenian title... yes, this is from Slovenia. As everyone confuses that and Slovakia, the latter is a former member of the USSR and thus is in that region (north of Hungary), Slovenia is bordered by Hungary, Italy, Croatia, and Austria and yeah, is now most famous for being the home country of Melania Trump. I've heard that this was the first horror movie from the country; unfortunately, this seems like every other horror movie you've seen, in the worst way. There's not a lot of originality and most of it seems old-hat and tired.

The plot is that two models are on a shoot in the woods (which at least are quite scenic) with the photographer and the makeup girl, when two deformed inbred hillbillies show up and what you expect to happen happens, including seeing women get abused. While the reason for the killings is not what you'd expect, otherwise this is so predictable and familiar and lacking in imagination, there's no real reason to see this; there's even a rather cynical ending, and there should have been more satire about the fashion industry and how shallow it is. One of the models being a twit who babbles on incessantly and is incredibly irritating is not enough on that end.

Admittedly, the movie does look nice, there is some gore, the cast is fine and I can't say this is poorly made; it's just lacking in imagination or more elements that will make it stand out from all the other movies in the redneckploitation genre. Really, you're better off watching something like Wrong Turn or Wrong Turn 2 (which I'll give good reviews to in the future) as those do this better and have more creativity. The novelty of a horror film from a country not known for its film scene on a worldwide stage is not a good enough reason to watch this, even if you can see it for free because it's on Prime.