Wait a minute. When did Adam Sandler start making horror films? Apparently, it was in 2009. The Shortcut was the first release from Scary Madison, part of the Happy Madison production company that Sandler started.

The word is that Sandler and crew set out to do it right, with R-rated material, but some of the folks financing the film insisted that it be PG-13. They already had the teenaged eye candy sure to attract teen viewers, with the likes of Drew Seeley and Katrina Bowden playing significant roles. And you know what? Things actually worked out pretty well. The Shortcut certainly doesn't break any new ground in the horror genre, it doesn't manage to generate any real scares, and you can spot the final twist from a mile away, but I still enjoyed watching it. The teen characters are actually likable, there's a decent amount of humor along the way, and the story doesn't leave any holes in its wake.

For a straight-to-DVD release, The Shortcut really isn't a bad little movie at all -- it's just the kind that would be more at home on cable television than in theaters.

The story really begins in 1945, as that's when the shortcut through the woods behind Hartley Elementary School began to earn its reputation as a spot to be avoided at all costs. The legend says that there's a crazy old man out there who likes to scare and oftentimes kill anyone foolish enough to come that way. Derek (Seeley) and his younger brother Tobey (Nicholas Elia) just moved to town two months ago, so they haven't heard any of the stories -- not until Tobey is dared by some classmates to prove how tough he is by taking the shortcut home. That leads Derek and some of his friends to investigate the wooded area for themselves; Derek even manages to drag Christy (Bowden), the fantastically hot object of his affections, into the adventure. Needless to say, the whole thing is a really bad idea.

As events progress in the current day, we get a series of flashbacks to the 1940s and '50s that help fill in the backstory of what is really going on out there in the woods. These scenes actually serve a purpose, as the whole truth can only be discovered by putting both of the storylines together in the end. I actually was surprised by one revelation, but the final twist, as I mentioned earlier, will be expected by a majority of viewers. That doesn't make it bad -- just really predictable.

The script as a whole -- which was co-written by Sandler's brother Scott -- is actually remarkably tight for a film of this genre. You have to put two and two together at times, but everything comes full circle in the end. The Shortcut will appeal more to teenaged audiences than hardcore horror fans, but this horror veteran really enjoyed this surprisingly enjoyable light horror fare.