Pelt

Pelt was a throwaway for me, a way to kill a few hours while doing something else, and I almost turned it off after the first five minutes, but I'm glad I stayed with it. Ultimately I put aside what I was doing and gave it my full attention.

Those who tuned out after the first five minutes can hardly be blamed. The movie tries very aggressively to make you dislike the characters in the opening sequences, which is inexplicable as the most effective and memorable horror movies set up the victims as real people so that you actually care about them (think "Audition"). Very bad move making the girls obnoxious cock teases and the boys frat-boy jerks -- I guess this was done to make you want to see them killed? To lighten up the savaging to come? Definitely a misstep, as the movie has lots of work to do to overcome that initial distaste -- it really opens like a revenge of the nerds type scenario, except without the nerds, only with the arrogant popular and beautiful snots.

But I hung with it and it quickly evolved into a tight little stalker flick, the characters shedding their one dimensional arrogance and actually assuming fairly human traits -- surprisingly human in fact. Of course the conceit of the plot is nothing new -- the stalkers are your typical back woods stalkers, and they are even doing what hick serial killers seem to most aspire to, but that doesn't really matter.

What matters most in a movie like this is watching a person or a small group be hunted and trying to deal with that situation, trying to survive. This movie does that remarkably well, and once the action begins will keep you engaged and interested, with more than the normal share of jolts.

I wouldn't be reluctant to suggest that you just skip the first 15 minutes of the movie altogether, as it's aggressively loathsome, and I suspect that's the reason that the movie has such a terrible rating. It might be a 3 for the first 15 minutes but it quickly becomes an 8 once the action starts.

"Pelts" was a typical "hot twenty-somethings go into the woods and bad things happens" film. It was decently-made and could have been effective.

HOWEVER... the filmmakers made a huge miscalculation. During the 30 minutes of "character development," they made the protagonists -- three girls and four guys -- among the most revolting group of assholes I have ever seen on film. I am not kidding here, guys, it's one thing to make characters so revolting that you're rooting for the bad guys to kill them. Usually, that's because they're just annoying and we "know we're in a movie." But when you put characters out there that are so mean and sickening that you are rooting for the people they interact with to BECOME killers and kill them, you've done something special.

If they re-shot the first half hour and made the group more likable, this would be a FAR better film. But alas, we are left with that we have.

Also, to paraphrase the late Gene Siskel, "In a film like this, we deserve some nudity." The girls are hot, but remain fully clothed. And just to sort of "rub it in," the hottest girl -- Amber Bollinger -- does have a nice tank top on, but half-way through the film covers that tank top with a large bulky shirt which she wears for the rest of the movie.

Sheesh.

It's a clichéd one star movie but I'll give it two because of Amber Bollinger. She's hot and runs around in her panties in the woods. Now for the bad. The characters are so annoying you want them all to die. The plot has been done a million times before (see "Wrong Turn" for one example.) My only hope is that the writer and director never make another movie again. In fact, they should be ashamed of themselves for not having an original thought in their collective imaginations. It's rare you get a chance to make a film, so why give the world a boring retread? On the other hand, Amber Bollinger needs to make many more movies. She reminds me of a young Bobbie Phillips. Unfortunately, her character in this film is so annoying that no one other than a few pervy fanboys will remember her.

I expected a lot from this film especially based on real life, but this movie is terrible, horrible acting by some no name generic actors. This was the worst movie I have seen in a long time. Just writing the review makes me waste my time, who hurt the creators of this movie to make such a terrible movie, I just can't believe this, so for this being a waste of my time and seeing this piece of crap go to waste, and not delivering what the trailer promised to deliver you, this movie goes down as one of the worst movies that I have seen, and with some of the worst acting that I have seen, I give " Pelt " a 1 out of 10 Stars.

If you like watching movies with a bunch of other people and mocking and laughing at an atrocious film, then "Pelt" is the movie for you! "Pelt" takes a cliché premise (young good looking people lost in the woods), adds in a list of no-names who ABSOLUTELY CANNOT act, who are forced to read some of the worst dialog ever written, and then films the whole thing on a store-bought camcorder. Actually, I would have guessed they filmed it on an iPhone, except there is some zooming in and out, so they must have actually sprung for a camera...

The actresses are attractive, and I was kind of surprised that there was almost no gratuitous nudity in "Pelt"... In a real movie, the presence or lack of nudity wouldn't affect my score, but in a cheap slasher film, I kind of expected it. The only nudity in the film was one of the chicks after she was dead, which of course is less of a turn-on...

Don't get me wrong, this is a 2/10 movie that you should watch, especially with a group of friends who are ready to poke a little fun and have a good laugh. It was actually one of the better "so bad its good" movies I have watched in some time.

I was extremely surprised when I came to IMDb after watching Pelt to see that its overall rating was an 8.6. Of course, only 19 people had voted to arrive at that score, so obviously, the cast and crew of the film had come here and cast votes. Once that number of reviews increases, the score of this movie will slide down into the 2-4 range it belongs in.