Get Away
Directed by Steffen Haars
Written by Nick Frost
Starring Nick Frost, Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft, and Maisie Ayres
Rated R
Runtime 1 hour and 26 minutes
In theaters December 6

by Samantha McLaren, Staff Writer

Imagine being so British that you bumble your way into a folk horror film because you’re too awkwardly polite to heed all the red flags along the way. Writer and star Nick Frost plays into this joke expertly in Get Away, his second horror-comedy collaboration with Dutch director Steffen Haars this year, the other being the wacky sitcom-inspired Krazy House. If you didn’t enjoy that one, don’t discount Get Away, because it’s a very different beast. 

Here, Frost plays Richard Smith, the “Daddy” of a family heading to the isolated Swedish island of Svälta (which translates to “Starve”) for their “holibobs.” They’ve picked the island for its annual Karantan festival, commemorating a horrific tragedy to which “Mummy” Susan (BAFTA-winning Irish actor, writer, and comedian Aisling Bea) has a family connection. This little detail helps to suspend our disbelief as, along with teenagers Sam (Heartstopper’s Sebastian Croft) and Jessie (Maisie Ayres), the couple ignore both the stern warning from the harbinger and the icy reception from the locals and allow the massively infrequent ferry to leave, stranding them on the island. 

So far, so Midsommar—but Get Away has a few clever tricks up its sleeve to keep its folk horror fresh. The creepy voyeurism of Airbnb host Matt (Eero Milonoff) and sinister schemings of town elder Klara (Anitta Suikkari) are juxtaposed with the family’s stubbornly oblivious attempts to enjoy their vacation, a chuckle-worthy situation that takes on new meaning after the big third-act reveal. There’s a little commentary here about the way British people act elsewhere in Europe, from lazy, patronizing attempts at speaking the language to a whispered mention of Brexit, though it never digs quite deep enough to strike bone. But it’s the decades-long legacy of folk horror that contributes most to the film’s rug-pull moment, with Frost’s script craftily encouraging genre-savvy viewers to keep an eye out for wicker men to distract from what’s really going on. 

This misdirection culminates in an explosively violent climax that is as funny as it is bloody.  The dynamics of the Smith family come into sharp focus, with veteran comedic actors Frost and Bea playing off each other’s energy nicely. But it’s relative newcomer Ayres in her first film appearance who steals the show as the carnage gets underway, practically skipping through the carnage with demented glee that is endlessly charming. 

Less can be said for the villagers, with whom the script spends so little time that the climax suffers a little from faceless enemy syndrome. What we do see of their customs is entertaining, but the script might have benefited from dedicating less time to Matt’s fixation on a teenage girl's underwear and more to fleshing out his fellow islanders before the blood starts flowing. 

A loving send-up of folk horror, Get Away leans heavily into the cringe comedy resulting from the culture clash and British family dynamics, but these awkward laughs mask a blood-stained grin. Not all the humor lands, but enough of it does to keep the viewing experience breezy. It’s more a weekend break than a full-fledged vacation, but if you’re looking for something quick, clever, and surprisingly vicious, Get Away is well worth the trip.