In terms of a slasher film or even a ghost story film, Shrooms probably ranks somewhere in the range of mediocrity.
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Most likely by sheer coincidence, Irish-born director Paddy Breathnach hooked up with another Paddy, producer Paddy McDonald to be precise, for the 2007 horror film, "Shrooms." One might say the movie itself has a mild aura of cheesiness at times and the actresses do have some nice buns, so when you factor in the two Paddies and the mushroom-theme, all we really need is Kevin Bacon and we'd have the fixings for a hearty burger.
Hey, it could have been worse. I could have opened with the one about the mushroom that was the life of the party since he was such a fungi. Groan.
Anyway, in "Shrooms," five twentysomething college friends--Tara (Lindsey Haun), Bluto (Robert Hoffman), Lisa (Maya Hazen), Troy (Max Kasch), and Holly (Alice Greczyn), all want to party in style during their school break vacation. Instead of getting wasted like normal college kids in popular sunny destinations like Cancún or Fort Lauderdale, though, they decide to forgo the beach altogether and head to Ireland. The plan is to visit their friend, Jake (Jack Huston), a local who is going to take them camping, but more importantly, use his knowledge of where wild magic mushrooms grow to make the outing one psychedelic trip of a lifetime.
Once they meet up with Jake, the six take a long drive out into the green Irish countryside. Just before reaching the area for their campsite, their vehicle accidentally smacks into a woodland creature (which ends up being a goat) creating instant roadkill. It produces a brief and awkward encounter with the goat's owners, two creepy inbred-looking brothers named Ernie (Don Wycherley) and Bernie (Sean McGinley) who live in a nearby ramshackle cabin. Personally, I've seen movies like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Deliverance" enough times to know that backwoods folk with poor hygiene generally are a very bad omen usually leading to cannibalistic murder or "squealing like a pig," but our adventurous travelers don't even seem to notice. All they have on their minds is shrooms, or kinky sex and shrooms in some of their cases.
Eventually they make it to their site and as they begin exploring their surroundings, Jake points out which are the good shrooms, and which are the bad ones. Jake warns the group to especially stay away from the deathcaps, since they have been known to induce hallucinatory premonitions according to folklore, but are most often fatal. Apparently Tara misses this memo and gives one of the deathcaps a taste, sending her into a violent series of convulsions. After being revived via CPR from Jake, her condition stabilizes, although she finds herself slipping in and out of reality.
Later that night while telling ghost stories around the campfire, Jake shares sort of an urban legend with the group. It involves a mass murder that occurred long ago at a now abandoned old children's home located somewhere close to their camp, and the story features colorful characters like the "Black Brother" and the "Lonely Twin." Of course, legend has it that the woods still are haunted by these sadistic ghosts of the past, putting the others on edge. Tara also begins having premonitions, thanks to ingesting the deathcap, about her friends becoming the next victims on the chopping block. At first everyone just thinks she's still totally tripping and laugh it off, but soon they discover that her ability to see glimpses future is no laughing matter.
In terms of a slasher film or even a ghost story film, "Shrooms" probably ranks somewhere in the range of mediocrity. I don't really have any complaints with the actors and actresses, and each is already building up an extensive filmography according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), so their experience comes through in "Shrooms." Even Breathnach has a few notches on his directorial belt, and as a result the cinematography is top-notch. There are fantastic shots in the reeds and through the trees of the forest, plus the hallucination effects from the shrooms are pretty impressive. In fact, the camerawork is so well done that it didn't even feel like it was a low-budget production filmed over the course of seven weeks.
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