Review: ‘Get Gone’ stirs familiar horror stew of killers, promiscuity and backwoods weirdos

The title of the horror movie “Get Gone” may be a not-so-subtle attempt to evoke Jordan Peele’s 2017 hit “Get Out,” and the film’s recurring image of a disturbed child in a white mask sure looks a lot like something from Peele’s “Us.” But the actual plot of “Get Gone” has nothing to do with either of those movies. It’s more of a tangled spin on the common scene in nearly every “young folks get slaughtered in the woods” thriller, when a creepy local warns the kids to flee.

In this case, the harbingers of doom — and the source of same — are the Maxwell family, who’ve been living illegally on government land for decades and have gone murderously mad due to tainted water. During the course of “Get Gone,” the Maxwells cross paths with both the authorities who are demanding they move and a collection of internet “hoax-busters” who intend to disprove the rumors of psychotic killers in the area.

In other words, “Get Gone” crams multiple tried-and-true splatter-flick premises into its short running time: from the masked sicko stalking sexually promiscuous 20-somethings to the backwoods weirdos who make life hell for unfortunate outsiders. But the plethora of plot lines just makes the film feel unfocused, not ambitious.

Writer-director Michael Thomas Daniels is working with an accomplished cast here (including the prolific Lin Shaye as the Maxwells’ matriarch). But in a way that just adds to the feeling that this picture’s been cobbled together from secondhand parts. There’s nothing notably new — or especially scary — about any of it.