The Jungle

Despite not being a fan of the found-footage genre, the great cover art and a relatively interesting premise(plus, although it has been a while, I remember enjoying the director's previous movies, they do need re-watches) were what drew me in. The Jungle is not a bad movie, the locations have a very beautiful yet claustrophobic look, the sound has a genuine spookiness done with subtlety, the acting is reasonable considering the material and there are splashes of suspense and tension. And it is a long way from the worst of the found-footage genre, Hunting the Legend and all of those from The Asylum are far worse. However, despite its potential, The Jungle didn't deliver for me. The shaky camera work is so excessive and in your face that it's nauseating, maybe it was a deliberate effect but it just felt too much. The script could have been much tighter, it relies on too much repetition- with a lot of chasing and running around screaming-, there is too much talk in places and the exposition at the beginning doesn't tell us very much. The story of course is deliberately slow-burning and has moments but the suspense and tension only come in splashes and not consistently, coupled with the repetitive nature, the slow pacing and the too-long amount of time it takes to build up The Jungle did feel more tedious than thrilling. At no point did I care or feel any degree of empathy for the characters despite the actors' best efforts. Larry especially is one of those who we dislike from the get go and the more the movie progressed the more the dislike turned to hate, he came across as arrogant and self-absorbed who didn't seem to give a toss about anybody else with him. As for the creature, apart from a growl, glaring eyes and the cover art it is literally non-existent, again a deliberate effect most likely but one that made the conflict not credible in the least bit and in the end you just don't care what it is. The pay-off at best is unsatisfactory, very close to not being one in fact. So overall, didn't deliver personally but could have been far worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I enjoyed this film. It had a real authenticity and sense of realism about it, it didn't pull any lame punches and when the scares hit they were very effective.

Its a slow burn so if you want fast paced gore and lots of blood forget it. I thought the suspense was really well done in that it is very minimal and really relies on sound to do a lot of the work, make sure you have the sound up.

I also liked the fact that we never really get to know what the thing is- leaves it up to the imagination which is always more powerful and scary than special effect and animatronics.

I also thought the acting was good especially the relationship between Larry the scientist and Adi the tracker.

If you experience dizziness or nausea seeing videos shot by shaky hand held cameras, this is not a movie for you. Most people think that this idea of a movie is outdated and had been used in numerous films throughout the decades, directors and writers still found it amusing to use this method to break their storyline. For me, it was fine. So what if it got shaky camera all over it, this jungle still worth my time watching it. It's a similar genre to movies such as cannibal holocaust, the blair witch project, VHS and mostly most of movies nowadays produced by Hollywood but with less gore and some interesting scare factor in it. The expedition in this movie kinda give you the 'destination truth' feeling and I personally love the background that depicts indonesian villages and thick green khatulistiwa jungle much suited its title. I can't say it is great movie but it will do to pass your evening. The acting is OK and the effects is so so. I give it an eight out ten just to boost its rating.

I'm all in favour of movies like Blair Witch Project with that "held camera" type of shooting.

The jungle starts off as something that could have turned into a great low budget movie. Instead it goes on a downhill road from the very beginning.

Starting with the main characters on their way to the jungle - without any actual detail of what the jungle looks like but a bunch of trees - as they dwell deeper all we get is the main character that comes across as persistent and egocentric guy trying to find A leopard... Even the fact that they bumped into the natives could've leave you guessing if you're going to find a secret cult or ritual.. but no. There is no actual development to the characters and as time goes by you'll find yourself looking at the time, wondering how much longer until it ends. After a "close encounter", 4 minutes before the movie finishes, we get a glimpse of what the creature looks like which is nothing but as what could be described as a hairy man with a wolf mask.. Something more plausible and appealing could've happened here... Not to mention that throughout the movie there is no actual scenes where this "hairy masked man" could be seen and all we get are branches braking and big roars.

It leaves the viewers without nothing to expect and with an end feeling of the so called "deja vu" - seen it all before..

Long story short:

If you're a newbie or impressionable 16-24 type who's grown up in a sterile western environment, this will probably be scary for you. Not a bad way to waste some time.

If you're an actual horror fan, you could take it or leave it. It's not bad but it's very by-the-numbers. I'd recommend if you'd just like to throw something on that doesn't take up too much attention.

They really should've made an effort to be at least a bit more original.