Berkshire County: By the numbers home invasion
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Movie Review – Berkshire County
A few days ago while browsing movies on iTunes I found myself craving a horror fix, which often happens. During that time I stumbled upon Berkshire County, and the poster and description caught my attention, so I thought I’d give it a go.
Kylie Winters is a teenage girl who makes the mistake of hooking up with the school jock during a Halloween party. Little does she know that said jock’s friends are recording them through a window. Millennials that they are, the video gets posted on the internet ruining Kylie’s reputation and setting loose a bullying rampage on her at school.
Despite her recently devastated life, Kylie reluctantly agrees to babysit on Halloween night. When she gets to the house in question, it turns out to be an enormous mansion isolated in the middle of the woods. Do you see what this is leading to?
Being Halloween night, trick or treating is expected, so when a small boy in a pig mask appears at the door she doesn’t hesitate and opens it to give him some candy. As it turns out, the kid has some friends wearing their own pig masks and are carrying knives. After this event, Kylie’s night quickly turns into a deadly hide-and-seek game.
While trying to save herself and the kids she’s babysitting, Kylie manages to call 911 and connect with an operator who becomes her sole company through her survival journey.
As a first time director, it is obvious Audrey Cummings has an undeniable love for the genre. In Berkshire County, her passion and unique filmmaking technique are evident throughout. Her frames are polished and efficient, and the editing and photography are just as smooth. Unfortunately, all these efforts aren’t enough to counterbalance an extremely weak screenplay.
The 911 call that runs through almost the entire film is, quite frankly, a joke. It’s virtually offensive to the viewer’s intelligence how evident it is that the operator on the line is part of “the game”. Situations like this one are aplenty and as a result, there’s absolutely no suspense at any stage on the screenplay whatsoever, owing to the fact that anyone who’s ever seen a horror movie before will be three steps ahead, which ruins much of the experience.
Lead actress Alysa King, who plays Kylie Winters, is one of the movie’s most valuable assets. She manages to come through with a very good performance through the script’s predictable twists and turns, and her character’s many inconsistencies.
The beautiful technical execution and production talent involved in Berkshire County make it a watchable—if instantly forgettable—entry on the home-invasion subgenre. Truthfully, viewers are better off watching the similar but much superior You’re Next. Additionally, if you’re looking for home-invasion greatness seek out the Spanish film Secuestrados (Kidnapped), one of the most effective and brutal horror films in recent years.
Berkshire County (2014)
Directed by Audrey Cummings
Tags: horror, movie review, movies, review