Totem 1999

Short, one-dimensional cabin-in-the-woods flick with padding

Six youths mysteriously find themselves at a remote cabin with a graveyard nearby. The problem is, some sort of barrier prevents them from leaving the area. Meanwhile they discover an ancient stone totem pole in the graveyard. What’s going on?

"Totem" (1999) is cabin-in-the-woods horror that mixes "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" and “Evil Dead” with the Zuni doll of “Amelia” (from “Trilogy of Terror”) and a little “Subspecies.” The runtime is only 68.5 minutes while the overlong opening credits run 4 minutes, 40 seconds, and the end credits 6.5 minutes. This combined with 2 minutes of footage from 1958’s “The Vikings” leaves less than 55.5 minutes for the actual story.

Thankfully, the story is fairly well-written and the acting is good for unknowns with the lovely Marissa Tait standing out as protagonist Alma. On the masculine front, Tyler Anderson is quite good as Robert, a tall Choctaw who never lived on the Reservation.

The director was a disciple of Roger Corman, who struck out on his own in 1984 and currently has like 180 cheap quickies to his credit. The budget was obviously less than $100,000 and probably closer to $50,000, but “Totem” is an okay experience if you’re a cabin-in-the-woods connoisseur, especially of the spare-change variety. But it’s the least of the four movies mentioned above.

The film was shot in Santa Clarita at Sable Ranch, which is northeast of Hollywood in the high country.

GRADE: C-

— Wuchak