When will people learn not to go camping? Only bad things happen to you when you go camping, especially if you sit around the campfire singing beforehand. We still have not learned our lesson, though, as the trailer for Cub proves.
Cub is a horror film by Belgian director Jonas Govaerts, about a troupe of cub scouts who go into the woods for fun and frolic. Among their number is troubled boy Sam (Maurice Luijten), who claims to have seen a creature in the woods. His counselors think he’s just imaginative, but of course he is not: there really is a masked, feral child living in the woods, and Sam seems to be the only one who’s aware of this fact. As we might expect, things are going to go very wrong very quickly.
While I’m often skeptical about new horror films, I have to admit that Cub piques my interest. The color palette seems standard for horror right now – dark blood, dark lighting, splashes of lurid flesh – but the story in itself seems like a new take on the “into the woods” motif. Combined with those well-known childhood terrors that can still work so effectively in the hands of a good filmmaker, that could make all the difference. The film is said to have influences of Lord of the Flies and The Devil’s Backbone, which is a tall order for any new movie. If true, this might be one contemporary horror flick I can give some money to see.
Cub will be premiering as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness program on September 10. Although there is no US release date as yet, if the film gains some traction we can expect to see it not too far into the future. Until then, you’ll just have to be satisfied with the trailer below.
