Triggered

The horror genre is packed with films about teenagers dying in the woods, so credit is due to director Alastair Orr and co-writer David D Jones for coming up with a wickedly original spin with this entertaining mash-up of Battle Royale and Saw. It sees a group of friends reunite for a camping trip that goes horribly wrong when they wake up wearing vests rigged to explode when the timer runs out. Forced to compete for survival, they each reveal their part in a backstory involving a dead teen and a vengeful father, but what's really important here is who'll do what to survive, especially as the "players" can "buy" more time by killing each other. Flirting with bad taste but fully embracing the tense fun to be had with its ticking-clock concept, Triggered expertly plays around with retro visuals, a twisty mystery and surprisingly nuanced characters. It's engineered to shock, but it's so successful in its gore-soaked ambitions - right up to its fittingly explosive climax - that a franchise surely beckons.