Meadowoods

(2010) ***1/2

In a rural nondescript town 3 bored college students who want to be remembered for “something” concoct the murder of a randomly chosen classmate while electing to film the entire affair. As voyeurs we watch them choose their murder method, devise a camera loaded death chamber, select a student to murder and watch how it all plays out. The leader of this murderous trio is a manipulative sociopath while the female of the bunch is a hate-filled girl who resents her popular classmates because she is not part of their club. The camera man is a shy boy who is so desperate to belong that he is willing to go along with the horrifying scheme. In-fighting threatens to jeopardize the plan when shy boy starts to have second thoughts after spending time with the intended victim.



Wow, I was so captivated by this movie! I threw it into my DVD player expecting nothing and was pleasantly surprised to find such an engrossing, believable story. Shot entirely from the point of view of the trio’s video camera, Meadowoods is chilling in its realistic depiction of the grisly subject matter. The tension builds quickly as we go from thinking, “There’s no way they’re going to actually do this” to “My god they’re going to do this!” If The Blair Witch Project has taught us anything it is that you can create a gripping, engrossing story with little more than a video camera and a small budget.