This was the film Paul Andrew Williams wanted to make before the remarkable London to Brighton.
Following the success of that film - for which he won an Evening Standard Outstanding Newcomer award in 2007 - he has returned to The Cottage, a comic horror with lots of dry humour and plenty of wet blood. You can see Williams is a good film-maker by the classy way it is made; but it's still not a very good movie.
Two bickering brothers, nasty David (Andy Serkis) and scared Peter (Reece Shearsmith), arrive at a secluded country cottage with the kidnapped Tracey (Jennifer Ellison) locked in the trunk of their car.
Tracey, however, is not only a splendidly foul-mouthed captive but an audacious one too. She escapes with Peter as a hostage only to face a mad axeman lurking in the gloaming.
It is not long before the blood begins to staunch the flow of jokes and Williams, determined to play games with his audience, pulls us this way and that between gore and giggles.
If you wait for the end of the credits more follows, as if everyone concerned is loath to stop the proceedings.
It all makes fair entertainment considering a low budget and not too high ambition. But Williams is clearly worth more than this, as the prized London to Brighton proved.
I would take a little bet, however, that The Cottage takes more at the box office than the better film did.
The Cottage
Cert: 18
