Fantastic Fest ’14 Review: CUB

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There are three big film taboos: violence against women, violence against children, and violence against animals.  Belgian film Cub nails all three of those without blinking.  I love Fantastic Fest audiences because we all know what we’re getting ourselves into, but I almost wish I had seen this with a big audience at something like SLIFF just to hear the “awww!!” and “NO!!!” noises eminating from the unprepared.  Here’s hoping I’ll get the chance in a few months, because I’m so ready to see this again!  We were only the second showing of the film in the world after Toronto, and it felt like I was on the ground floor of something awesome.  Indeed, this is the best slasher film I’ve seen in a long time.

Cub follows a Boy Scout-ish group led by two men and one woman as they enter the woods.  Their purpose isn’t really established, nor is if they’re actually supposed to be where they end up.  Counselor Peter (Stef Aerts) likes picking on a troubled kid named Sam (Maurice Lutjen), and campfire story about a child-werewolf named Kai hunting their woods becomes a reality to Sam.  Counselor Chris (Titus De Voogt) defends Sam until a tragic event sways his opinion slightly.  They don’t believe him about a threat being real, but they’ll soon learn that while Kai may be myth, SOMETHING very real is out there.

“Mean spirited” was the initial word I got from that Toronto screening, which is something I like to hear.  Slasher films have a habit of being too kind, or forgiving.  I prefer a slasher where the killer’s a complete monster, unflinching in bloodlust.  In the first minute of the film we get a good look at the Kai, which is refreshing as opposed to the normal shadowy figure for 50-75% of the film nearly all horror films do.  He’s got a strange mask of tree bark covering most of his face, with a near constant stream of drool dripping off.  What’s also cool is that it’s a FUCKING ANIMAL CHILD.  He’s like Mowgli if rather than a bear singing about necessities, the bear tried to kill him for a few years.  Acting is uniformly good here;  this cast of children are speaking Flemmish and/or French but all seemed more authentic than average child actors.

There’s not a lot of story going on, more of just a set-up and execute slasher film, complete with synthed out, 80’s style music.  The characters are all drawn fairly well, but Sam being the focus of the film is a bit underwritten for that function.  Beyond knowing that he had a violent upbringing and was brought in All the cliches of a summer camp flick are in place, too, but the style and steady hand of Jonas Govaerts makes it feel fresh again.  He’s a bold director and it’s insane that Cub is his first feature length film having worked on music videos and a handful of shorts previously.  I can already tell you that he’s a director that I’ll follow until the end of his career.  So much attention to camera movement and framing, the film is lit so professionally, and he doesn’t ever hold back.  There are quite a few good kills, but the best one involves a two-for-one booby trap that had the crowd clapping it up.

Be sure to check out Cub as soon as you can, it should get snatched up for distribution quick with the buzz it’s building.  It’s so exceptionally done that even those too sensitive to those aforementioned taboos might still give it a pass.  They may want to take a bathroom break at least once, though.