The Helpers - Warning: may contain elements of `found footage' genre

Sometimes you have to wonder whether there are any American teenagers left in the country. Another car-load of them has only gone and broken down in the middle of nowhere and found themselves fall foul of... whatever the latest crop of psychos lie in wait for them.

It's nothing new, but then horror has little `new' left in it, but at least we can hope for an entertaining ride. Sadly, `entertaining' isn't a word I'd use to describe `The Helpers.' The word I'd use is `annoying.' We're used to annoying teenagers running right back into the clutches of the killers instead of sprinting for the hills as fast as they can. But, here we have not just the stupidest seven teenagers ever (yes, expect all the clichés, i.e. not bothering to actually kill the baddies, only running away leaving them to get up again and continue the pursuit), but also the most annoying baddies ever.

It's actually hard to tell the difference between the annoying teens being stalked and the annoying teen killing them. It's like a convention of shrieking MTV presenters being doused in red paint. The killers have no credibility about them. They're not scary, just irritating. And their backstory regarding why they're like they are doesn't really hold up.

Then, to add final insult to injury, the film-maker includes many sections of `found footage.' If you don't know what that is, then you obviously haven't been watching enough low budget horror movies these days. It's basically the most overused technique in film-making that allows a slender budget to try and be stretched to the breaking point.

The Helpers adds nothing new to the horror genre. It borrows elements of far better films, such as Hostel, The Hitchhiker and Vacancy. My advice: watch one of them instead.

4/10 You can watch this film while you're doing the ironing (you'll still get the general gist of it)