An idyllic cultural vacation turns into a slasher massacre of hilarious proportions.

• Fun factor: ★★★★★
• Twist factor: ★★★★★
• Originality factor: ★★★★☆
• Gore factor: ★★★★☆
• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★

Get Away is a British slasher comedy that turns a family vacation into a slasher hell, when a family of four vacations on a remote island. Prepare for a lot of gore, bloody kills and a lot of laughs. It stars Nick frost, Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft, Maisie Ayres and Anita Suikkari. It was directed by Steffen Haas and written by Nick Frost. 

Duration: 86 minutes.

Plot

Richard and Susan go on a vacation with their daughter Jessie and son Sam to observe and witness the celebration of Karantän on a small Swedish island. Susan is the one who really wants to go because it’s a tradition about the history of the island of a clash between the British and the Swedes and ends in death. The celebration is now a reenactment that she desperately wants to experience. Richard is in too, but both Sam and Jessie don’t want to go to an isolated island with nothing else to do. 

On the island they are anything but welcomed and the elder woman demands them to leave, because Karantän is a sacred tradition and not for outsiders to witness and least of all English outsiders. But then she sees a chance to make the reenactment very real this time, just like they did in the old days. And the outcome was not in favor of the English. 

On top of that Jessie feels like she is being watched and at night the islanders are threatening the family. But the family  doesn’t let the islanders scare them away. When the celebration is nearing, the stakes get higher and it can only mean it isn’t going to end well.

Short Review

It does have a bit of a feel like Hot Fuzz, where nothing is what it seems. The family is a dull English family with a softy for a father a determined mother and two bored college kids, who don’t like each other. Before they get on the ferry they even get warned by the owner of the cafe, who is also a bit hostile and the ferry people are very surprised that they want to go to the island. 

The islanders themselves are very hostile and don’t want them there, until they see an opportunity. They radiate creepy cult vibes, living completely isolated with their own rules and ways. It gives the film a great folk horror vibe. They are unfriendly as can be, and Susan even gets licked in her face, but she chooses to ignore it, all for the cultural experience. So we can establish that everyone on that island is a bit weird and that if anything goes to hell, it really does go to hell. 

It all feels like a loser English family that won’t stand a chance against the evil villagers with a very disputable history of cannibalism and death and killings. On top of that the owner of the Air B&B that they rented seems nice but you immediately know there’s something off about him.

The humor comes at you through many different ways. The islanders are all quirky and enlarged characters, but so is the English family, who are all stereotypes too. It starts out a bit weird and even a bit creepy, but at some point the comedy turns into a slasher comedy with a lot of gore, bloody kills and very funny and creative killing. The kill scenes are hilarious but they didn’t forget to put in a little tension, so it doesn’t become a complete slapstick. The fight for live and death is on and history seems to repeat itself. Or is it? 

Get Away is a funny slasher comedy with a big twist that turns the whole plot upside down. It’s plenty full of bloody kills and entertainment and the characters are really getting into their roles, even in a meta perspective.