Set on Independence Day, where we see a mixed group of patriots, liberalists, and romantics, who gather at a remote cabin to celebrate the festivities only to be forced to use their wits and guile from a rampant and bloody attack.
As the movie winds you in, my first reaction felt a little stifled as the acting and pace felt a little strained and the dialogue, although going for naturalism comes across a little forced at times.
This is all forgiven by the time it reaches the first onslaught, which comes thick and fast, with such brutal savagery it tears apart the senses with stark reality.
Half the group is dispatched with quick severity, which is a good thing as it would have been hard to track who’s who without this swift attack.
From here on in, it’s anyone’s guess who will survive and with each attempt of escape and moment of solidarity quickly snuffed out by the attacker, the tension mounts with incredible unease.
By the films conclusion at just over the hour mark, you certainly feel like you’ve gone through the wringer. And the film satisfies as a result.
The Diagnosis:
Despite some dubious acting and dialogue in places, director Pete Macy offers a delightfully savage look at the slasher genre in which the brutal reality shines through and becomes its champion.
Check this out to see a low budget, bloody film which pits the question of what would you do when confronted with an ambush in a land far removed from your own.
A Tattie-Bogle is a Scottish term for scarecrow, so Attack of the Tattie-Bogle is basically Attack of the Scarecrow. A less inspired title. Fear not though, what it lacks in a characters and story, it makes up for in sheer brutality.
What most will remember about Attack of the Tattie-Bogle is just how real it feels.
A group of young adults gather at a remote cabin to celebrate Independence Day. A group that includes an awkwardly over the top patriot, a parody-like liberalist, couples and horn-dogs. Who they are hardly matters even if this short film tries to add some character stuff in pointlessly.
It’s pointless because there are far too many characters and nowhere enough time to make anyone really care about them. Then there is the fact that a handful just aren’t that good. The dialogue clunky in their mouths. Nowhere is that worse then the patriotic dispute that kicks off on the boat.
However, this is mostly forgotten when a masked figure arrives and doesn’t hang about with the slaughter.
Seriously, this person arrives and in a blur of brutality kills a large portion of the cast. It’s a pretty shocking sequence and clears the fog created by bad dialogue and character interactions instantly. Suddenly Attack of the Tattie-Bogle has the attention, clear and undivided.
From this point onwards, it becomes a cat and mouse game between the last few survivors and the killer. Every escape route is blocked off, the killer is relentless and most importantly, uncompromising when it comes to dishing out the savagery. It can get quite uncomfortable too as the sight of a character pleading for their life results in nothing but murder.
By time the credits roll at just over an hour, Attack of the Tattie-Bogle will have left an impression. It’s not a horror classic by any stretch and takes a bit of time to really get going but when it does, the level of realistic brutality will be remembered.
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No scream queens. No drama queens. No Instagram-loving narcissists. No bitchin' around. No annoying character development. Attack of the Tattie-Bogle is an alternative slasher — lean & mean as hardcore as it gets.
There's an oddly relatable simpatico between the darkly comic micro-budget tone and the Utøya-like setting that make this one stand out amongst countless other ∅-budget fun thrill rides, vibewise and otherwise. Sure, it can't re-scale the horrific heights of Terrifier. By no means! But quite frankly, I have more fun with it than I do with most of its benign and commercially-orientated cousins.
A trashy one, but also a true labor of love. Worthy of support.
- I don't want to over-praise this. It's a dirt-cheap slasher movie that looks like it was shot on 15-year-old home video camcorder. Still, what I saw genuinely impressed me. This is strong low-budget filmmaking; no, the acting and cinematography aren't good, but the film gets right down to business, is ruthlessly efficient, and delivers a series of enjoyable, well put-together stalk and slash sequences. Countless slasher movies with 100x the budget and resources have failed to accomplish that much. The abruptness of the ending is dumbfounding. In a good way. Ignore the all-time terrible title. C+/B-
- I'm a sucker for any made in Wisconsin movie. Literally ANY movie. Yes even Chill Factor. As I scroll through Prime to watch a movie with Mylo tonight I saw this one was set in Wisconsin and immediately cancelled our original plans cuz all Wisconsin movies take precedence. Basically, what seems like an infinite amount of friends, go up to a cabin in Northwoods Wis for 4th of July, like you do. As night falls, some scarecrow dude [apparently Sir Tattie-Bogle, but it's never said] just goes on a massacre. He takes out one cabin, then Chase's some more people through the woods, then back in the garage then back in the woods, Tat's gets around!! Apparently it was shot…
- No nonsense, straight to the point micro budget slasher. The kills are realistic and maybe a little too short or one dimensional but they still hold their weight. The killer is intense and creepy enough and isn't some superhuman killer that can take every hit imaginable. Instead we get real kills that look sloppy and a less than impactful ending which kinda works for me because that may just be how the real thing would happen.
- HALF-O-WEEN MOVIETHON: DAY 3 I've often mocked incompetent low-budget crap with the faint praise that it is "almost a real movie." But in the case of ATTACK OF THE TATTIE-BOGLE, I mean that somewhat more literally: at 60 minutes, it may not technically qualify as a feature-length film, depending on what organization's standards you want to apply. And this is not the only way in which it may not rise to the standard of a "real movie"; if you're looking for production values, character arcs, meaningful dialogue, or, hell, any "story" at all in the traditional narrative sense of the term, you're not going to find it here. What you will find is a zero-budget film which gets right to…
- Has a fair bit of Blood Lake hangout DNA in its makeup, but the bulk of this is a surprisingly straightforward and merciless slasher, making up for its nonexistent makeup budget with sharp editing that cuts on impact, turning the kill strokes into hard ruptures. Does its thing, gets in and out in an hour's time. About as good as you could hope for!
- Average match of Friday The 13th The Game
- Run! It’s the totally-terrifying-and-not-hilariously-named Tattie-Bogle!
- Don't let the micro-budget or the silly title [that's never explained] fool you, this is fun flick and unlike any slasher film I've ever seen. It's surprisingly brutal and punches you in the face once the masked killer shows up. After that, it's a thrill ride with the perfect amount of humor to balance everything out as the remaining characters figure out what needs to be done to survive. While the cast is completely made up of first-time actors, very few times did the performances take me out of it. The opposite actually. I was impressed with how believable the reactions were from some of the characters to such a seemingly implausible turn of events. One man coming to his…
- So rarely do I turn off movies before watching them all the way through, but this one just could not hold my interest.
- A movie for anyone bored of walking the well-trodden Slasher path and willing to get lost in the low-budget woods just to see some different scenery.