“SHED” is a gritty tale of suspense about a deranged Mother and Son duo terrorizing a young couple in the dark woods of the Pacific Northwest. The script is filled with deep emotion, surreal imagery and a barrage of tense scenes that build throughout a frantic second act and explode in an action-packed climax.
Weeks away from graduating medical school, Rachel Wilson has a tough decision to make. She has just found out she’s pregnant and is now burdened with the issue of what to do about it. Is she prepared to tell her boyfriend Danny? More importantly, is she even ready to be a mother? This secret comes to a head during an impromptu weekend trip to clean out some old belongings from her recently deceased Mother’s cabin. Isolated from civilization and with a decrepit tool shed swaying on its foundation in the overgrown backyard, it serves as the perfect setting for the nightmare that’s to come.
That nightmare arrives in the form of Malcolm, a deranged psychopath with an album full of Polaroids of young woman that have unfortunately crossed his path. Carting his invalid mother around with him, her disfigured face hidden beneath an expressionless, rubber mask,Malcolm uses the shed as his theater of pain for every new “girlfriend” he abducts. And Rachel is the fly that just landed in his web.
Now, in order to save her life and that of the unborn child she never even knew she wanted, Rachel will battle it out with Malcolm through a series of white-knuckled scenes that culminate with a severely wounded Danny and a shell-shocked Rachel, barely escaping the woods with their lives. Unfortunately, however, Malcolm escapes as well.
At this point, “SHED” does what most other ‘cabin in the woods’ horror films do not: it returns home with the victims. It is this unconventional decision that has garnered “SHED” success from a series of script competitions. Instead of staying in one location until it’s overstayed its welcome, we are shown the aftermath, in all its gory detail, of how Rachel and Danny attempt to survive an ordeal that has nearly destroyed them.
But how can they move forward knowing that their hunter is still out there? Can they ever be a real family until they deal with that shadow looming over them? Fatefully, they will get the chance to answer that question, for Malcolm has been watching them and is returning to finish what he started.
In a throwback to the golden age of the horror films like “THE EXORCIST” and “ROSEMARY’S BABY,” “SHED” spends as much time on the characters as it does on the scares and rewards you in the end with real catharsis and redemption. It has been praised for its fast pace, gut-wrenching drama, and almost nauseating moments of horror. So before you read it, make sure you’re prepared to enter the woods with us.