Review of Rabies

First of all it's worth pointing out that the title of this film doesn't really have any bearing on the content. When you hear that this is a film called Rabies set in the woods, you would be forgiven for thinking that it's going to be a Cabin Fever clone. But in truth Rabies is a much more ambitious film than that. It basically has a group of disparate people brought together one day in the woods where a psychopath traps and kills people. However, where the film differs from most of this type is that the maniac is probably the most irrelevant character in the whole film. Instead he is the catalyst for a series of events leading to all the other characters independently committing all manner of violent acts. There's barely a story here and none of the characters are very well-developed but the slightly chaotic narrative is certainly a bit unusual.

As far as I'm aware, this is the first horror film from Israel. Maybe even the first in the whole of the Middle East. So I suppose it's quite important in that respect. It's by no means a great film but it isn't especially derivative and it does have some good jump moments and occasionally effective humour. Worth seeing for horror buffs.