The Barge People (2018) Poster

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4/10
Cannibalistic mutants with rubber masks bleed water n not blood? Beware! the film contains offscreen kills as the effects r shoddy.
Fella_shibby11 July 2020
This film is directed by the same fella who gave us the TCM rip off Escape from Cannibal Farm. The director is obsessed with red color n too much screaming n unnecessary badly shot carnage. The only thing good is the director's obsession with the settings of that of a country side.

Coming back to this film, it is a time waster as it is a cheesy copy of Hills have Eyes n Wrong Turn. It has cheesy n cliche dialogues - "no one escapes" "nothing personal" "my family has been feeding on the flesh for years" "u r not the first and u must certainly wont be the last". The over usage of red color n the constant flickering lights r annoying. The facial rubber masks r a big lol. It has offscreen kills as the effects r very shoddy. In fact the mutants from the low budget The Pack is more terrifying than these ones. Very generous with a 4 for the director's effort.

One reviewer has given this film 10/10. Clearly shows that he is associated with this film. Never mind, it's not a crime or sin to do that.
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3/10
Don't waste your time
TerribleKatherine7 March 2020
The 10/10 review is most likely a fake one so that the average score appears higher- This movie IS indeed quite horrible. It would be a 5/10 IF the characters were even decent and the movie wasn't so boring with all the bs horror tropes, but 3/10 is the highest score I can give. Do not watch this.
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3/10
why do some turn into cabbage
ops-525358 July 2020
There are an endless stream of blood and gore, screaming and weiling as killing commence and never ends. turdy story about uk citizen on canal boat vacation bumping into neanderthals and even better.

it has some clues of job well done, but its definately not a must see. the grumpy old man gives a weak recommend
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2/10
Not good.
Opinate10 July 2020
I wish this was a better movie. I was hoping it would be a nice UK horror along the lines of The Canal. But not so. Characters are one-dimensional and the little bit of story is lost in long dark stretched-out stab-fests. Its a shame something like this gets funded when it isn't much better than a student film. Really not worth the time. The "Killer!' 10 star review is bought and paid, for (their only review on IMDB)
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5/10
Mutant River- The Canals Have Eyes
Jester22220 October 2021
The trailer really won me over and purchased this uncut version from Germany.

Rubber masks aside the fikm has sone ok moments.

Cliche ridden ? Yes of course.

Cheesey one liners and old creepy men shouting Warnings , the Slaughtred Lamb tyoe pub, angry locals.

Mutated Fish men too! Who seem to pointlessly and unexplainably bleed dirty canal water when stabbed. Ha ha The frying pan scene reminded me of Rik and Ade in Bottom. Unintentionally hilarious.

Not really much gore, deaths mostly off screen unfortunately, but lots of blood thrown about and an interestingly shot Barge attack are ok.

Yes its cheap, yes it's not original but it has heart, some surprisingly good acting (the nasty local blonde women being one) and the male and female lead did a convincing job.

If didnt show the mutants as much, didnt have them talk and spent a little more on some actual make up for wounds etc this could have been worlds better.

Seen far worse and it did keep me entertained. A Solid 5.5.
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1/10
What did i just waste my time on?
Lordia874 April 2020
If there was a -10 star review i would have picked that. Awful acting. Just horrible over all. Do not waste your time.
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1/10
Worst movie ever!!!!
paulmoyk-9063414 February 2020
Worst movie ever, and it's true!!! Worst story!!! Worst acting!!! Worst everything!!! I cant believe I saw this movie through!!
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4/10
The Canals have eyes
nogodnomasters24 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The 87 mile long Kennet and Avon has had 150 people go missing over a 10 year period, more than 1 per month. Mark (Mark McKirdy ) decides this would be a great place for him , his girlfriend (Kate Davies-Speak clearly the final girl ) and another couple to enjoy the outdoors on a rented barge. We also discover that the water has Cyanobacteria in it. Eventually they run into the deformed cannibalistic locals.

Another average knock off film. None of the characters were likeable.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
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7/10
Good Old School Style Horror
herbrarnold30 August 2020
The title "The Barge People" sounded ridiculous, and even though it may be, it was a fun ride of old school horror. I think those of rated this film low have been spoiled with excessive CGI horror and scifi. None of that here, just some good old slasher gore. Two couples take a trip on a barge, unaware of the carnivorous creatures that lurk in their path. For a B horror flick, the acting is good and the battle for survival keeps the suspense going. Suspend belief, and enjoy some great horror tropes and moments.
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1/10
What???
lasse-1540914 February 2020
This is the worst movie ever. Plot is totally confusing. If it means to be funny.. they did a decent job. Ridicolous from a to z. Hrmmmphh
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8/10
If you go down to the canal today ...
parry_na9 July 2021
Bloated fishy creatures make life miserable for a gang of mainly likeable friends on a boating holiday. The canal and surrounding area is very nicely shot by Charley Steeds, nicely showing off the beautiful UK countryside - and this makes a deceptively calm backdrop for when horrible things begin to happen.

Funnily enough, after a very effective first half, things dip a bit when the creatures turn up, and events seem to be heading in very familiar slasher territory (a scene prior to this involving the group entering a typically unfriendly country pub is surprisingly clichéd). This lull, however, doesn't last long.

The character of Ben is a cartoon character really, played as such by Matt Swayles. I get the impression he's brought in as light relief, which is fair enough, but seems a bit incongruous when everyone else is played as 'real'. Having said that, there are some nods into horror cliché which means Ben isn't entirely on his own.

I really enjoyed The Barge People. The budget is clearly a consideration - it would, therefore, be unfair to have a go at it because of a lack of multi-million dollar CGI effects or whatever. The creatures themselves look pretty convincing to me, although more could perhaps be made of their aquatic origins, which is never really explored.

All in all, great fun. 8 out of 10.
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7/10
An entertaining old-school slasher!
Slasher_Junkie18 August 2020
I was worried 'The Barge People' was going to be a waste of my time, but it turned out to be a fun throwback to old-school horror. There are some flaws with the writing and the cheesy make-up effects, but I chose not to be too critical about it, because the movie was exactly what I was in the mood for. It reminded me of '80s horror, although you can tell it was heavily influenced by 'The Hills Have Eyes' and 'Wrong Turn'. Hopefully, it finds a fanbase, because I would like to see more of these amphibian/inbred looking creatures.
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1/10
Don't waste your time!!
rafaelfuser16 July 2020
Just a piece of crap, I just couldn't watch this movie until the end. Bad acting, bad plot, it's a nonsense poured with fake blood!
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Yikes. Awful waste of time.
horrorgasm30 July 2020
Acting and cinematography are passable, but once the creatures appear it's all downhill from there. The barge people are literally just wearing rubber masks and it's VERY noticeable. One of them even has eye holes that aren't quite the right size and you can see a bit of their face underneath. It looks awful. These are the cheap Halloween kind of rubber masks too where the mouths don't really function, which again, is very noticeable, especially when you can easily see that when the barge people are supposed to be eating people, they're actually clearly just rubbing their mouth against them. Again, looks awful.

Other effects like gore/death scenes are equally embarrassing. The creatures shoot geyers of water out instead of blood, which is already silly, but there was one part where two characters are hitting one of the creatures with frying pans and it inexplicably made water blood shoot out in spray bursts as if they were being stabbed? They're hitting it in the back with frying pans, one of them using stabbing motions for some reason, and it's wearing a thick rain coat, and somehow that fills them with holes and makes water shoot out? This is not a comedy movie either, so I really don't know what they were thinking with scenes like that. It's just terrible.

Big mistake to make these things talk too. They're supposed to be rabid mutant cannibals, and yet they can apparently speak English well enough to spout awful cliched comic book villain one-liners (through a very cheap sounding voice filter). It's supposed to be sinister, but it's just laughable.

They clearly had no idea what to actually do in terms of story once the creatures showed up either. Characters just ramble and pointlessly repeat themselves to fill up the run time.

Overall just a big waste of time. Clearly someone was looking to cash in with as little effort as possible here. I've seen worse, but The Barge People is pretty far down there near the bottom of the barrel. 2/10.
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1/10
Don't waste your time.
kjjames8126 September 2020
Boy was I conned into falling for the four star review on this site. This film was so bad I can't even find where to start. The acting, the storyline (was there one), overall the whole film itself, like I said I can't find where to start. The first two or three minutes or until the two couples meet was okay. I liked the 80's style music and feel and that was it, after at it went totally down hill from there. The film was just awful, that is the only word I can use. Yes I know there was a low budget and I have wen lot of low budget films that have been made well but this wasn't one of them. You can tell I didn't like it. Honestly if I could give this film a zero then I would
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3/10
Saw kind
ks-6050028 July 2020
Been watch the Texas saw killing many years ago, if you enjoy those bloody scene, this one is the one. Kill kill n kill.
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1/10
Seriously?!?!
johannes2000-127 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Is this for real or a joke? Or maybe - to give the possible intentions of the makers at least some credit - meant as a parody of 60's slasher-horrorflicks??

Any which way, this movie fails miserably. First of all there is hardly any storyline. Four friends team-up for a weekend boating on some rural brooks and canals. In their first night they are attacked by hideously deformed and cannibalistic fish-like creatures that emerge from the water. The rest of the movie is filled with one ferocious fight after another, with victims piling up up until the last one standing (and I won't give away if he or she makes it, in case someone feels the misguided urge to check it out himself).

Since the makers had to work with utterly lame dialogues, mediocre acting and preposterous monsters, they tried to cover-up these substantial defects with a tsunami of blood, everyone goes at each others throat (the monsters literally!) as madmen, cutting and beating and knifing with whatever weapon they can find, causing fountains of blood in the process. If prudently dosed that can be fun, but here it's (again: literally!) a total overkill, turning it all in a tedious and repetitive bore.

I love old-fashioned slasher movies and I guess there are a hundred ways in which a modern filmmaker could do them justice, but definitely not like this.
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5/10
This movie is a BD-Release?
londonaftermidnight-709329 September 2020
What is BD-R? It is a recordable blu ray disc, as opposed to a factory pressed blu ray. Why start a review on a discussion of this format? Well when I bought it I thought I had been ripped off, however it seems that RLJE has chosen to make it's blu ray release a video on demand format. It's DVD on the other hand may be factory pressed , but as of the typing of this review I don't own a DVD of this film ,so I'm uncertain. NOW: for the review. The Barge People to me seems to be where the director and writer have found the proper antagonists for there horror movie , as opposed to the blatant leatherface clone in their last film Escape from Cannibal Farm. Now that doesn't mean that the film is original in scope, it's basically another homage to the Texas chainsaw massacre, but more often compared to The Hills Have Eyes. Theirs nothing wrong with imitation , after all that's what most of the horror genre is really , it just matter that it's done well. This is a very low budget film that had trailers shown two years ago , but then fell of the Radar until now with its North American release. Despite being a low budget indie film, it's actually pretty well made and despite its criticism of being just guys in halloween mask , I thought the filmmakers did a decent job giving them a fairly good creature effect. The gore was good as well as some of the action sequences. Acting was fairly good , however non British people may have a hard time understanding some lines as the filmmakers chose to go for the more realistic regional dialects . So in closing it's not a bad film. If you're a dyed in the wool horror fan you'll enjoy this . If your a casual movie goer you , this may not leave much of an impression.
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4/10
Could of been better.
Draysan-Jennings23 July 2020
Turned it off about 45 minutes in. I Couldn't take this film seriously. Not a terrible concept, just too corny for me.
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10/10
Killer!!
rob_mells25 January 2020
Watched this at the recent Horror on Sea Festival in Southend-on-Sea and loved it. Great story, solid acting, a pretty brutal and incredibly tense scene on a barge, well filmed, and an awesome scoring throughout. THIS is what low budget indie horror should be like, can't recommend it more!!
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4/10
The Barge People
kamikaze-47 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A Mildly entertaining film if you haven't seen Doomwatch (1972). SPOILERS In Doomwatch, the government is dumping chemicals into the ocean which infects the drinking water of citizens of a nearby island. The citizens suffer from Acromegaly and suffer fits of violence.

This film has a similar theme as chemicals are turning the locals in a nearby village.... oh, you know the score.
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1/10
Awful
This could have been a better movie with a few changes ( like the ending). The makeup was just ok. The acting wasn't terrible. The movie was extremely predictable though which made it boring. Also, IMO Makenna Guyler should have been the lead.
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1/10
Poor Acting, Poor Scripting, horrible action scenes... total wreck!
ercarvajal18 February 2021
Do not waste your time with this piece of nonsense. Aside from the premise, which is NOT that all original of course, this film has nothing good.

Characters act in the most stupid way possible, ridiculous situations and reactions from these characters, the acting is so bad that doesn't help at all. Basically an insult to the people of UK.

The practical effects will remind you of the bad low-budget movies of the 80s and the dialogs are so dull it is really difficult to find good things out of this movie.

Save your time, ignore this title.
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5/10
The trailer told me to watch it
selfdestructo28 August 2022
Kudos to the guy who made that, because as it turns out, The Barge People ain't that great. First thing, in the opening, they refer to the Kennet and Avon Canal. My heart sank. Oh no, this can't be British horror? Unfortunately, yes.

Overall, I will say I was entertained by this movie, and enjoyed it's unique setting, with the rented barges, but man oh man, was this movie derivative and predictable. Any twist or turn of events you can see coming. This movie, uh, borrows from at least a few other classics, most notably, to me, was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Funny thing, if you read the trivia below, it says this filmmaker's previous movie is heavily inspired by TCM! Pretty sure I'll be skipping that one.

When was this movie supposed to have taken place? They put a yuppie in it! There were elements that were foreign to me (maybe just the result of a different culture), yet it had that stupid "retro 80's" (done by young people whose inability to ape 80's music is always evident) synthesizer score, the exact same one I've heard in countless other modern/retro horror movies over the past half-decade. I would deem this a modern trope all by itself. You want horror tropes? You've definitely got them here. My favorite: British J Mascis warns the 4 kids to turn around and go home! Every one of these types of movies has that scene. Here it is in 2018. I've seen meta horror poke fun of this trope. And I wonder what that bar maid is up to? Hmm, something's not right.

I mean, you could certainly do worse. It's got plenty of blood, a character (or -ers) you want to see die a miserable death, and rubber-masked inbred cannibalistic outcasted mutants... mutated by, well they give you a whole array of scenarios... all stolen! A solid 5, for being just dumb unoriginal fun.
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1/10
Tax write off here we come.
seven-johnson7 October 2020
I swear "movies" like this are only made to write off someone's taxes.

Should have pushed the boat out a bit more and gone for 2 actresses with alright teeth rather than just the one.*

*That line - if I say so myself - is more entertaining than the entire movie and has the blessing of being brief, which the movie is not.
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