The Shortcut (2009) is not particularly interesting as a horror movie in general. It is interesting as a horror movie that defeated Adam Sandler.
Let’s take a look at it with full spoilers.
The Shortcut
The Shortcut is about two brothers who learn the horrifying secret of a rarely used shortcut that cuts through the woods behind their school.
Drew Seeley plays the oldest brother. Seeley backed Zac Efron’s singing voice in the first High School Musical film. The Shortcut was Seeley’s chance to step out of the shadows and ascend another rung on the movie star ladder. Alas, it did not work out that way.
Nicholas Elia (Speed Racer) portrays the younger brother.
Also starring: Katrina Bowden (30 Rock and Tucker & Dave vs. Evil), Dave Franco (Neighbors), Shannon Woodward (Westworld) and Josh Emerson (Jennifer’s Body).
The villain duo of The Shortcut is covered by Raymond Barry (Training Day) and William Davis, who played the Smoking Man on The X-Files.
Nicholaus Goossen helmed The Shortcut off the heels of the stoner comedy Grandma’s Boy.
Dan Hannon and Scott Sandler wrote the film.
Together, this team puts together a movie that could premiere on Showtime in 1997. The Shortcut exudes that filmed-in-Canada look that shows like The Outer Limits, Poltergeist: The Legacy and others made ubiquitous at that time. It also brings us back to the color palette of Batman Begins. Remember when that made brown the new black?
The Big Shortcut
The big idea of The Shortcut is sturdy enough to build a horror film around. The movie takes place in a small city. Everyone knows about a shortcut from the school to the residential section of town, but nobody uses it.
Why? Because people got killed using the shortcut all the way back to the 1940s.
Seeley and Elia are new to the town, however. They don’t know the legend. One day, Elia takes the shortcut and is threatened by Barry while he buries a dead dog. This leads to the group of youths exploring the shortcut on the premise that Emerson wants to find out if the dog being buried was his missing dog.
Eventually, it is discovered that Barry’s brother, Davis, is a murderous psycho. He is so psychotic that his father put a 100-foot chain around his neck and kept him prisoner. Once the father died, Barry became his brother’s caretaker.
As for the 100-foot chain, that is not an exaggeration. The family must have wanted Davis to get fresh air and exercise, kind of like the way Matt Dillon’s character speaks about putting “Mongo” on a leash in There’s Something About Mary.
Since The Shortcut is a horror movie, it must have a shocking twist. The end of the film reveals Seeley and Elias are also a pair of psychotic brothers who murder people. The twist does not work at all, however. It is never properly set up or hinted it. It is clearly there in a sad attempt to leave viewers with a gasp as the movie limps to an ending.
The Long And The Shortcut Of It
So, what does any of this have to do with Adam Sandler? You may have noticed Scott Sandler wrote The Shortcut. Scott is Adam’s brother.
In 2008, Adam Sandler sought to expand his empire. He launched a horror-focused imprint called Scary Madison through his production company Happy Madison Productions.
The Shortcut was to be the first of numerous horror films from Sandler’s company. Unfortunately, The Shortcut went on to be such a critical and financial failure that Scary Madison was immediately shut down, dead on arrival.
To be fair, The Shortcut production was not without trouble. Hannon reports the screenplay was “rewritten 50 million times.” The movie was originally conceived to be R-rated, but financers put on the brakes until Scary Madison agreed to deliver a PG-13 film.
Who knows what would have happened if all that interference did not transpire. The basic idea of The Shortcut is workable. Plenty of horror movies have been built on less. A shortcut through the woods offers opportunity for fairy tale-toned horror film. Plus, the cast could have followed in the footsteps of likeable investigating teens in horror films like Fright Night.
If The Shortcut hadn’t been rewritten into blandness and Gossen and crew could have gone a bit edgier, maybe we’d be getting Adam Sandler horror films to this day. They could have filled the Blumhouse/A24 niche.
A Long Story Shortcut
Little about The Shortcut stands out. It has a decent, attention-getting opening, but then it generates no energy until the third act when Davis starts dragging his 100-foot chain around. By then, it is too little, too late, and once the movie tries to wow viewers with its twist, they will get their panties in a twist about the time they wasted.
If you have the option of taking this shortcut, take the long way home instead…
