The Ridge

A group of friends arrive at a secluded mansion in the middle of the woods in order to unwind for the weekend. But when they arrive, they find the place trashed. After cleaning up, they settle down & tell stories about the Ridge Runner – a crazed survivalist who slaughtered his family before disappearing in the area some years ago. At first, the night goes along nicely but when they find the corpse of the house's caretaker in the pool, the Ridge Runner appears & begins slaughtering his way through the group.

The Ridge is an ultra-low budget slasher film conceived as a copy of the Friday the 13th series, except without any hockey-masked killers roaming about, instead having a mysterious survivalist assaulting the cast.

For the first 45 or so minutes, nothing happens. Writer-director Brett Haley, who plays the group's most anally-retentive member, writes poor dialogue & has no idea on how to carry the film along without resorting to dull writing. The dialogue that appears in the film seems forced & the background story about the Ridge Runner that they mention is not very interesting.

But once the corpse in the pool is found, the film switches gears. Haley might not know how to write good dialogue, but he knows a thing or two about staging brute force shocks. Haley milks the surroundings for all the suspense that he can get – this film has more jumps in its final half-hour than the entirety of most of the Friday the 13th sequels. Not just that, but Haley also turns expectation on its head by featuring a rather unconventional final survivor. Despite its low budget The Ridge is a much more authentic slasher film experience than most of the Friday the 13th sequels.

I wish I could say nice things about this movie but alas, the bad out weigh the good. The actors did a good job, They were convincing and worked well together on screen. My problem was with the story and editing. There were several bad cuts throughout the movie that distracted from the story and made me kind of angry considering the time they took to get decent angles and have a decent cast. The story was solid however, I would have liked the "Ridge Runner" to be built up a bit more, his hood was way too big and made him look comical rather than intimidating. There were a couple of decent scares and the dialogue wasn't so bad that I felt myself wanting to fast forward. I really wish the filmmakers took the time to get an editor who actually knew what they were doing.

Note to Producers: Next time show some skin. Especially when you have a character take her bottoms off in a pool only to have her bottoms back on in bad editing. It is annoying and distracting from the story. I would have given you at least one more star if she was actually naked.

Aside from that major continuity error, this film was mediocre but in a good way sometimes.

We will start with some pros.

Not every scene was constantly dark and there were a few cool shots here and there (A pool, a small hill at the beginning, just little cool shots). The gore was very well done and looked very realistic. It had a nice mythology going (Staying true to it on the first kill made it very pleasant that the filmmakers paid attention to themselves).

Now the cons.

The awful acting from nearly everyone; only the females being decent at best. The dialog was painful to listen to and the 'character development' was cheesy and bland. The kills were uninspired and bland and they all meshed together in a very unsatisfactory way. The actions of the characters were horrendous and they really could not have done anything better to make themselves better targets.

Overall it was decent. I managed to jump twice, which I can usually anticipate quite well (Probably because I had earphones on, trying not to wake everyone up so it was a little awkward watching it on the television set with headphones).

Overall I'd give The Ridge a 5/10. It's a forgettable flick that you can rent once and mildly enjoy by yourself or bring a bunch of friends serve them some 'beverages' and you'll have a blast making fun of it.

Entertainment is entertainment either way it's entertaining. I'm Not good with profound statements so forgive me.

The film is a contemporary horror that draws from the urban legend of The Ridge Runner, a brutal killer out to slaughter anyone who settles on his land. "The Ridge" begins slow and clunky but within the first fifteen minutes the atmosphere becomes a nonstop slaughter fest. Okay maybe a bit more than fifteen minutes but the point is what starts as a questionable flick turns into a real chiller.

The story opens with the cliché set-up of friends on a getaway. Only within the first few moments of arriving to the house, nestled in the woods, things get eerie. The dialog is flimsy, random, and doesn't really seem to lead into the story, at least not until the standard "do you know a scary story" moment. That is when we are introduced to the urban legend of the brutal ridge runner. There are moments when the story, even the telling of the legend, feels contrived, but for the most part it is a plausible premise. It is obvious though that most of the writing focused on action and kills based on the weak dialog. So at first the film starts off shaky. But when the sh*t hits the fan, the film almost transforms into something totally new.

The special effects are pretty tight. The attention to presenting killer scenes and action sequences is obvious in "The Ridge". The house plays a big role in the film with so many rooms, levels and areas for the killer to pop out from, The night shooting and sound effects help create a traditional horror look, that will be recognizable to horror fans. From the moment the first body is found, explaining the eerie beginning to the film, "The Ridge" really goes full throttle giving total slasher entertainment. The soundtrack at times feels hokey-hallmark-y, but I can over look the style of music used to create an emotional continuity to the story.

Overall "The Ridge" turns into a pretty decent indie slasher film. The fact that the horror just happens, with no justification other than a faceless killer mad about loosing his land, only adds to the nightmare. There is some pretty stellar directional choices and cinematography in "The Ridge". Honestly if the dialog and first part of the film would have had the strength that pops up in the second and third act then this would have been a ten for me.

Five college youths take a getaway to a luxurious vacation home on a scenic ridge and somehow incur the wrath of the legendary Ridge Runner, a murderous woodsman.

"The Ridge" (2005) is a micro-budge film (costing just $2400) written and directed by Brett Haley, who also stars as the semi-pathetic Blake who's rejected by the woman he craves and disrespected by his brother (Neal Bledsoe) and another dude before going off to brood. Will his suppressed rage conjure up a beast from his Id that will give birth to the rash, murderous actions he could only daydream about with his conscious mind à la "Forbidden Planet"?

I was wondering if that was how the film would pan out, but I'm not going to say.

Anyway, "The Ridge" begins with all the hallmarks of spare change budget fare, like poor sound, hand-held cams, less-than-stellar acting and dull dialogue/drama. The entire first half of the movie (43 minutes) is like this, which will tempt some viewers to tune out, but that would be a mistake because everything kicks into gear at the halfway point and Hayley's talent is showcased from there out. Seriously, the change in quality is so great that "The Ridge" is almost like two movies. Drama obviously isn't Haley's forte, but suspense/horror definitely is. The quality score by Austin Donohue accentuates the suspense.

Lydia Hyslop as Cara is a highlight; she's sweet & beautiful and (almost) worth the price of admission. Neal Bledsoe plays the main dude; I hear he went on to greater things.

Someone compared "The Ridge" to the Friday the 13th movies and said that it was better than some of the sequels. While it's true that it's a taken from the Friday the 13th mold, it lacks the budget of any of those films and is therefore one-dimensional and amateurish by comparison (the first half, at least). It also lacks the humor of some of the sequels of that franchise. It's totally serious, particular once the killer is revealed. Speaking of which, I like the fact that the Ridge Runner is presented as a mysterious killing machine with zero attempt to explain his (or her) insane actions, except for the legends spoken about him, but only in hushed tones late at night when the fires burn low.

THE FILM RUNS 87 minutes and was shot on a ridge in Iron Mountain, Michigan, which is located in the northwestern part of the state near the border of Wisconsin.

GRADE: First half C- and second half A for a balanced grade of B-