Class Warfare

Cabin-in-the-woods clash between altruism and mammon worship

A few wealthy high school seniors in the Seattle area take a three-day weekend break at a remote vacation home on Puget Sound in which they bring along an ungreedy idealist (Robin Dunne). The materialistic president of their class (Lindsey McKeon) naturally clashes with him until it’s discovered that he’s won the lottery.

"Class Warfare” (2001) takes the cabin-in-the-woods scenario and adds the interesting conflict of selfless generosity vs. selfish avarice. There’s a horror element in the Hitchcockian sense, but don’t look for an eye-rolling slayer with a mask and a butcher knife.

Similar flicks include "Humongous" (1982), "Out of Control" (1984), "April Fool's Day" (1986) and "American Gothic" (1987). While the set-up of each is comparable, the antagonists/threat are all different. Needless to say, if you like these, you’ll likely appreciate what this one has to offer.

Lindsey McKeon is certainly alluring, but her character (Kristen) is such a manipulative money-obsessed biyatch, it’s hard to warm up to her. Also on the feminine front is Kiele Sanchez as Amber.

While this debuted on cable (USA Network), it has a bigger budget than the typical ‘B’ horror/thriller. For instance, the isolated vacation home is awesome and the Great Northwest scenery is to die for. Then there’s a fairly involved sequence downtown in the last act, which I bring up because it costs moolah to shoot in the city (permits, etc.). Meanwhile the no-name actors all rise to the challenge with convincing portrayals (also including Wade Carpenter as Jason and Dave McGowan as Graham).

The film runs 1 hour,36 minutes, and was shot in the area of Vancouver, British Columbia.

GRADE: B