10 Awesome Films You've Probably Never Seen
1. Nailbiter
Sensibly eschewing the found footage, torture porn and generic teen slasher subgenres, director Stephen Rea gives us a cautionary tale that proves the wisdom of avoiding road trips during tornado season. Alice Maguire (Emily Boresow) and her three girls are driving across Kansas to meet her husband, a Marine who’s returning from overseas, when she spies an unfriendly storm in the rearview mirror. Forced off the road, they take refuge in the cellar of a seemingly abandoned house, and that’s where the true horror begins.
The story of a family being stranded in Hicksville and falling prey to crazy locals and their crazier secrets may bring to mind the Texas Chainsaw, House of Wax and Hills Have Eyes revamps, but they were formulaic, surprise-free and sucked like an Electrolux. Nailbiter just wants to get on with the business of storytelling, and Rea delivers a lean, entertaining effort that, while not dazzlingly original, still avoids the ‘been there, done that’ feel of most fare.
At no point does any character stop to namecheck George Romero, Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven etc, nor does anyone experience a ‘Nilbog moment’ and proclaim the blindingly obvious. Okay, so maybe the monster does resemble a rubbery Orc in a few shots and the ‘storm’ is clearly being generated by a rain machine, but that’s all.