Italy · 2020
Rated R · 1h 20m
Director Alessio Liguori
Starring Jack Kane, Zanda Emlano, Zak Sutcliffe, Sophie Jane Oliver
Genre Horror, Adventure, Fantasy
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A group of five classmates is trapped inside their school bus after a mysterious creature invade the road. Time runs and every passing minute decreases their survival chances against the constant threats of that unknown entity.
The monster is kind of cheap looking and not particularly scary, the gore is non existent, the acting is variable and the characters tend to make boneheaded decisions. Yet, for all of that, Shortcut does sport a certain moody charm, and at least it has the good sense, at a brisk 80 minutes including end credits, to not wear out its welcome.
Attack the Block this is not. Shortcut is too violent and foul-mouthed for kids, yet too tame and juvenile for adults, bound to leave horror aficionados indifferent. You’ll be better off watching Jeepers Creepers 2 instead, and that’s really saying something.
With lackluster character development, a few ill-conceived situations in the second half and dialogue that sounds like it’s been run through Google Translate, there’s only a modest amount of entertainment value found therein.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
At least this excursion into mediocrity is relatively brief, although, as mentioned, a vastly shorter cut would be much preferred.
The wheels come off Shortcut pretty much the moment the kids have to flee that bus.
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
Based solely on its own merits, Shortcut is both an amateurish production and a mindless genre exercise.