Terroir
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
Wine tasting is such a fun event to do with friends. There are so many different places to do wine tastings, such as vineyards, wine cellars, certain high-class liquor stores, and they all usually offer various different types of wines. They are usually seen as events to go to with friends to get a nice buzz going, but want to be classier than bar-hopping. However, who would've thought you would go to a wine tasting and get brutally murdered? That is the whole point of Casey Rogerson's horror-comedy Terroir, a tongue-in-cheek name for a movie that fits the same vibe. Though it is short and I do wish it was expanded a little bit more, this short film is tons of fun from beginning to end, with very entertaining and hilarious characters played by Madison Hu, John R. Howley, and Naomi Rubin.
The film is centered around the three friends as they go to a French vineyard one year after Kirsta (Hu), a wine critic, gave it a horrible review. Vineyard owner Madame Laurent (Leenya Rideout) and her son Pierre (João Santos) invite them back to try their other wines, promising it is going to be a lot better than last time. While the three friends notice the wine is considerably better, things take a turn for the worst as they are picked off one by one by a masked murderer. How is Kirsta going to escape, and what is the mystery behind the murders taking place?
This movie moves very quickly and is very smart with how the film plays out the events. The movie is very simple and the characters are very quirky and fun, immediately capturing the viewer's attention and providing them a good time for the entirety of the 15-minute runtime. This is such a unique and interesting concept and I honestly hadn't thought about what if there was a killer throughout a French Vineyard. Rogerson does a great job of putting a comedic slasher story into such an unlikely setting, and it is very refreshing seeing such a new take on a classic horror trope.
The characters here are written very well, and do a great job of spoofing those that are found in various other slashers movies. I was cracking up when Howley's character, Oliver, was freaking out over an expensive wine being left out in the open and when Rubin's character of Rebecca wanted to sip and try her wine when the killer is right next to her, raising his alarms. It's very clever and just really does a great job of parodying how dumb horror characters are. At the same time, the performances from the three main characters, as well as Rideout and Santos, are all incredibly fun and fit the roles perfectly. In a way, this sort of reminds me of Disney made an adult slasher film, in all the right ways possible. The tone of this film is crafted by these performances, and they do a great job of keeping the viewer's attention.
However, while I enjoyed this film immensely, I think this movie would have benefited more from a longer story. The twist that comes at the end is funny and is a great callback to the earlier moments of the film, but it seems very out of left field and I wish there was more to build up to that plot twist. The story here is very thin, and I wish Rogerson went in a little bit more on the story, even if just a tad. He did a great job of telling a character-driven piece, but with an idea this unique, I wanted more to the story ultimately.
There is no doubt Terroir is an incredibly fun little slasher flick, and I appreciate Rogerson thinking outside the box and putting an iconic film subgenre into an unlikely setting. The performances and the tone of this movie is fun from beginning to end, and it's going to make those who have seen it be a little more leery when they go wine tasting again.
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