Alessio Ligouri’s Shortcut is a movie that you don’t see often enough, namely a simple story told well (and at times evocative of Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me – you might have noticed that I didn’t say ‘Stephen King’s Stand by Me‘ because while he may have written The Body, the short story the movie was based on there’s little reason to think that he might have directed it with the same elan). Way too many novels and movies make things way more complex than they ought to be (and while I enjoy complexity, I don’t tend to be enamored of it for it’s own sake).

The movie revolves around five teenagers – who’re actually young folk, as opposed to twentysomethings trying to act like teenagers – who’re taking a bus trip.

The driver is forced to take a shortcut when the main road is blocked though things go from inconvenient to very, very bad when the bus is hijacked by an escaped lunatic.

And as terrible an outcome as that may sound, sometimes you come to learn that sometimes things can get much, much worse.

The movie is an Italian-German co-production, which is to say if you live in the United States you’re not likely to recognize any of the actors (though they acquit themselves admirably).

And as I mention in the video, the lighting on the movie is damn impressive, especially when you consider that most of the movie takes place in various degrees of darkness).