CUB

A troupe of young Cub Scouts find themselves stalked by a psychopathic huntsman who has riddled the forest with ingenious and deadly traps.

Troubled twelve-year-old Sam (Maurice Luijten) heads off on a summer camping trip with his Cub Scout troupe. When the highly imaginative boy claims to have seen a creature in the woods, his counsellors naturally assume that their campfire tales of a monster named Kai have gotten to him. But the danger Sam sees is all too real: watching from the darkness is a masked, feral child whose menacing snarl and quick movements go unnoticed by all except for Sam. As the mocking taunts of the other boys isolate Sam further from his pack, he becomes increasingly convinced that a terrible fate awaits them all.

In Cub, first-time feature director Jonas Govaerts draws on such influences as Lord of the Flies and The Devil's Backbone to create a world filled with vivid childhood terrors. An atmosphere of danger and foreboding surrounds the young boys and their mostly clueless scout leaders, none of whom can see that they are the quarry in a sinister hunt — and as a series of ingenious booby traps start bloodily whittling down the troop's numbers, it becomes clear that the boys are up against a foe far more formidable than even the perceptive Sam realizes.

Brilliantly evoking the sensation of cowering behind tent flaps while unseen dangers roam the dark woods outside, Cub marks Govaerts as a bold new voice in horror cinema: one who understands both the art of storytelling and the complex craft of inspiring real fear.