You would think that young adults of this day and age have seen enough horror movies to know that trips with your band of assorted friends to remote locations usually end up not being the best of outings. The characters of The Stitcher obviously haven’t since a sense of optimism permeates their trip to their friend’s newly inherited lake house, oblivious to the fact that they will run into a very nasty man who plans on cutting their trip and their lives short. That may be a bit of a clichéd way to describe a horror movie, but no more clichéd than what the Stitcher has to offer. The usual dead teenager scenario is admittedly given a bit more spice by the filmmaker’s decision to focus on the whole scenario as opposed to just presenting a series of random kills strung together by a flimsy premise.

The psycho is visually more interesting than most neo-slasher villains on the occasions that you get to see him, and care has gone into making him a killer with a quest. What I found most interesting was the absence of the usual misogynistic themes that most slasher films are usually full of. Obviously this is because the majority of the behind the scenes players are women, notably the writer and the director. This gives the movie a unique perspective not usually associated with slasher movies but fortunately doesn’t turn this into a watered down “chick horror movie” or a Lifetime Production.

Most of the kills happen off screen, and there is no real payoff for the extremely tired stalk n’ slash from the killer’s point of view moments that this film has. On interviews and in the cast & crew commentary it is mentioned that local Tulsa theater talent was utilized for the production, not just pretty faces that answered a newspaper or modeling agency ad. Trust me, when I say it shows. Most of the acting, when not outright painful is so over done that you can
imagine the actors over emoting for the audience members in the back row. That might work on stage but it comes across as unbelievable and horrid on film.

A bit confusing is the movies trend to leave the fates of characters a mystery only to have people that you believed to be dead suddenly pop up later in the film alive only to then be dispatched. It gets a bit tiresome trying to figure out just what exactly happened to a certain person only to have your theory upended when they appear for no reason only to be killed to pump up a lull in the momentum.

All in all, The Stitcher is not a bad film, but it seems very cookie cutter and repetitive of many of the slasher films from years past. Extra points are given for making the film more of a character driven piece even if the characters ended up becoming caricatures. Not breaking new ground by any means, The Stitcher is a decent way to revisit a genre that we thought went out of vogue years ago.

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