Sometimes GetAWAY leans too much into genre cliches but overall it’s entertaining, well-acted, and plays out as a love letter to slasher flicks of old. On the flip side, it doesn’t try anything new and can sometimes come of as a low budget attempt just copying films that have come before it. At the very least you get to see unlikable young people get killed while judging them for not practicing social distancing.

GetAWAY opens following a teacher as she interacts with a student and ultimately meets her end on the receiving end of both a knife and camera. Queue opening credits. We then meet our group of young folks that are heading to an empty summer camp to film a movie for a final project. Maddie (Emma Norville) is an aspiring actor not wanting to go due to an ex. Harlowe (Franchesca Contreras) is her friend that convinces her to join anyways. To round out the trope filled bunch is the ex in question, clueless theater nerds, the overbearing director and producer, and the rest of the crew. Don’t forget about the foreboding stranger in the woods or the creepy groundskeeper!

Tensions run high as some feel invested in the project while others treat it as a weekend party. What follows is eighty minutes of by the book slasher movie entertainment and entertainment it is. Though the story beats are well worn and seen countless times, the acting is top notch and the dialog came off as mostly natural to the point that I felt genuinely interested in the outcome. All the actors worked well together and had great overall chemistry, but special shout out goes to Emma Norville. While this is her first feature length film, she carries herself well and is a great actor. Acting tends to be a weak point for horror but GetAWAY overcame that potential shortcoming with ease.

The sound design and directing were well done, also. The soundtrack didn’t rely on sudden sound queues to create jumps and you could clearly understand what each person was say, no matter the situation. While this might seem like a small thing to praise, many movies–especially horror–tend to have uneven audio which is annoying at best and distracting at worst since you might end up having to fight with your TV volume all through the movie.

One technical aspect that was lacking were the effects, sorry to say. A lot of most visceral action took place out of frame and what was shown tended to be subpar. This came off rather jarring considering the amount of care and effort put into the rest of the film. By the time the credits rolled I didn’t feel like it was a waste of time and to me that it a big indicator if something’s worthwhile (especially given the current state of things and some of us spending more time indoors then we would like). If you want to watch an entertaining slasher film that fits right at home with those from the 80s & 90s, GetAWAY is a great choice.

7 out of 10