Peaceful211
*** Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! ***If you've seen the movie and are confused, here are my observations. I want to watch this movie again for more details (yes, really!). :-) Flashbacks show a lot-- details that add up in the end, though not easily, nor entirely. But they do piece together.While seated in his office at home, recording notes, Terrance recommends a prescription of the exact drug he then abuses throughout the movie-- recommends it to a woman who's husband has died and she is not dealing with it well.The alcohol and drug combo cause blackouts throughout ("It's time for lunch" spoken at night, etc.). The hallucinations begin VERY early on. He likely did not hit a wolf with is car, which then ferociously growled at him, and in seconds is unable to move and dying. He his something, but not a mostly-white wolf. The woman's face in window is another early hallucination. His kids could not wake him up their first morning in the cabin because he's passed out.Blackouts/delusions/paranoid-- all part of the sum plot.He killed daughter Cynthia in the cabin's kitchen--flashback shows her there, quite dead, as she says, "Daddy, you're hurting me." It's a quick line, easy to miss- but it lets us know what he did, just with no details.Dad drowned son in ice bath after again hallucinating that random arms were coming out of the tub trying to drown *him* (likely son freezing and terrified and wanting to get out!) while attempting to reduce the fever.At some point, he put them both kids in the double bed like they were sleeping (after dressing his son-- see the huge man's sweater on boy when he's lying there).We are eventually shown that he beat up Mr. House and locked him in the attic, duct taped and tied. However, when Terrance "finds" Mr. House later, the old man must, in reality, be dead from hypothermia. He was very sick, the attic had to be freezing, no food or water...But he (half) remembered what he'd done.At some point later Dad buried the kids-- hence, two crucifixes in the ground before he then buries the stuffed animal (named Jack the Ripper-- a serial killer-- hint hint) after his delusion that his daughter Cynthia asked him to bury it. In his mind, he buried only a stuffed toy, not both his children.I believe that the entire end scene-- cops, dog, ambulance, and all, is completely made up in Terrance's mind. He realized that he'd locked sweet old Mr. House up in the attic (and likely, House died), that both children are dead (from illness, he thinks), and guilt spurs a powerful story for him--- that Mr. House is saved by the police, that his kids are alive and rescued along with him, and that he is just on his way to the hospital on a sunny day.In reality, possibly(!), no one knew to look for Mr. House there, and Terrance is still in the cabin where he's killed his children and an old man in a state of grief, paranoia, and drug/alcohol-induced hallucinations and delusions.That's what I could get, plot-wise. More sure of some things than others! I Loved the cast in this movie. That's the 7 stars. But as many have noted, it's far too visually dark for far too long and the confusion and total chaos gets old...
gavin6942
A father's quiet retreat to the woods with his two children turns into a fight for survival.Director Andrew Currie studied under Norman Jewison and wowed horror fans with his film "Fido", which mixed George Romero and Jacques Tourneur, with a dash of humor. This time around he does not quite reach that same level. Although he has some modest star power (Eric McCormack of "Will and Grace") leading the way, it may not matter.While there is obviously decent production value and nice use of color (the tints and shadows make the cold just a little bit colder), something seems off and caused this one to go under the radar and be quickly forgotten. What does this mean for Currie? A 50-50 batting average means his next one has to be great. Bring it on, Currie.
flitz35
This horror film from WWE Studios is a good example of a horror movie getting a bad rap. Not many horror movies that can leave you biting your nails without blood. A good ghost story is all you need to make you not wanting to be alone while watching especially if you have a good surround sound system. Barricade achieved that.Its human nature to prejudge a movie based on unjust critic reviews. I trained myself to watch a move without any persuasion from critics that review movie for there own personal gain. If you watch barricade the same way your prejudice and total opinion would be different. As far as I am concerned this movie should average as least 6.5. Good acting, good story and more importantly scares.
GL84
Heading out to a small cabin to get over the death of his wife, a man and his children find the location to be the source of numerous creepy goings-on and that someone or something is targeting them inside, forcing them into a desperate fight for survival.This here was just an absolutely paltry effort with very little to recommend about it. The fact that this one's restrained rating means that the film is constantly fighting an uphill battle that it will never win since there's never going to be any danger to the children in order to get a harsher rating, forcing the attack scenes to fall into a predictable pattern of fading out before anything happens to which he wakes up and thinks it was all a dream, or he sees something that distracts the attack and it focuses on another aspect of the situation which is quite distracting and really diminishes the film a lot. As well, there's very little to keep the film engaging when the attacks don't come, and the whole plot twist comes at you from a mile away despite the hint it's going to be clever, and the only thing this really has going for it is the creepy cabin with the raging snowstorm outside, which is quite a bit of fun and definitely has a great atmosphere to it, but otherwise there's not a lot going for this one.Rated PG-13: Violence, Mild Violence and children-in-jeopardy.
