The premise of Steffen Haars’ latest collaboration with Nick Frost (the two have also worked together on Krazy House, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year and received less-than-favorable reviews) in Get Away seems oddly familiar with its primary inspiration: Ari Aster’s Midsommar. The movie, written by Frost, tracks a typical family on holiday in Sweden, and things go predictably wrong. We quickly learn that they long to take the ferry to Svälta, where, every year, the inhabitants of its ‘commune’ craft an eight-hour play to remember their darkest day, known as Karantan. Expectedly so, when they arrive, the family, comprised of Richard (Frost), Susan (Aisling Bea), Sam (Sebastian Croft), and Jessie (Maisie Ayres), is unwelcome on the island.
First, they are warned by a restaurant owner not to step foot in Svälta (if they want to remain alive, thus the title, “Get Away”). Then, they are told to leave by its inhabitants. However, they did rent an Airbnb and are, thus, reluctantly permitted to stay. There’s a political subtext that explains why they’re unwelcomed, but this doesn’t get exploited to its fullest extent. What instead follows rehashes plenty of narrative (and thematic) beats we have seen in a film like Midsommar, where the family is constantly frightened by Svälta’s community, whether being observed in secret or in planting a dead animal carcass at their front door.
Suffice it to say things aren’t going well for this family…until Haars takes an abrupt right turn before its climax with one hell of a twist. Initially, the presentation of that reveal is respectable enough and relatively fun to watch. Haars saves all of the carnage (and a sick Iron Maiden needle-drop) for that part of the movie where the emotional connection with the protagonists is now at its highest because we now understand why they are here at this specific moment in Svälta. It’s something this reviewer won’t give away because many won’t see it coming, even if some clues in its opening section may point some astute viewers in this direction.
After such a scene where the film’s blood-soaked gore is exacerbated by nifty practical effects and comically twisted violence, Get Away abruptly stops giving its central twist momentum and begins to peter out. The comedic punchline of that sequence is well-executed, and it gets undoubtedly over-the-top. Still, there’s an incessant disconnection with the protagonists that we begin to feel as soon as Haars takes that abrupt right turn and does nothing of interest with it. Perhaps the Midsommar sections of ‘bad things happening to certain family members who are gaslighted by others in thinking everything’s fine when it is not’ aren’t particularly inspired, but it at least puts the audience in a relatively safe place where they can attach themselves to the protagonists, because they know what’s coming.
Because of this, the twist looks bold and certainly leans us forward to the screen once it occurs. However, when doing something like this, Haars (and, by extension, Frost) must commit to that abrupt shift and consistently make it a part of the movie’s identity. Unfortunately, it only seems to exist to distract audiences from the fact that its setting (and plot) feels awfully close to another – and better – movie.
That said, the core relationship of Richard’s family in its pre-twist section is entertaining enough. Frost, in particular, is quite adequate, even if he plays an extension of the figures he portrayed in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy. Only when the movie reaches that twist does this character relationship become less interesting because it boxes all of the protagonists inside one-note attributes without ever fleshing them out. As a result, when Get Away reaches its comical ending, it doesn’t land with the emotional – or cathartic – feeling that it should.
The funny thing about this is how the film’s pre-twist half set up a rather intriguing rivalry between the family and commune, with its leader (played by Anitta Suikkari) wanting to resurrect an age-old tradition that Svälta’s inhabitants are opposed to. There’s a debate within the village that could’ve truly fractured them and led the film to a subversively fun climax where, in any event, practical blood will pour down like there’s no tomorrow. It does, but not in the way you think. Of course, Haars definitely has fun killing people with as many vintage effects as he can, and we are also primed to enjoy watching this deliciously twisted feast of blood and guts. But at what emotional cost?
SCORE: ★★
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