Enclosure

One time watch for me. Fiona Dourif and Jake Busey was good init. The story is very strange & confusing. 3/10

Well it had an interesting premise I'll give you that, overall OK execution but sadly it couldn't deliver much.

For a in the woods horror, Arbor Demon is more interesting than most but fails to provoke, and also I think it fell a little short as well. Perhaps if the last act would go on for a little longer and genuinely focus on that we could have had a better experience with it. There was room for more, maybe better writing, or you could blame it on the directing part, because either way you're looking at it, you feel that you could have gotten more, better!

So all in all it is a hard movie to recommend to anyone. Watch it at your own peril. It's definitely not bad, but it doesn't go all the way. Kinda stops two thirds of the way.

Cheers!

A couple decide to revitalize their relationship so they head to the woods for a camping trip. She wants to settle down and have a family while he prefers to travel with his band. During the trip she has morning sickness hinting towards a pregnancy. Their trip is cut short when hunters are found dead with one still barely alive. They quickly learn that they are not alone. What is out there? This was a good slow burner where they keep you in the dark most of the time as to what's going on. This of course creates oodles of tension. Once I did see the creatures I instantly thought of Troll 2 (1990). Jake Busey adds a supporting role as the wounded hunter. I did find the husband was an annoying character who was useless and couldn't do anything anyways.

Not a bad flick that could have been way worse like making it a found footage about bigfoot.

A boring creature feature film with an equally boring ending. The film tries to do too much with a simple concept, it seems really over-produced to me. Most scenes are not scary at all, and the creatures I thought, looked pretty silly. I'd compare this to an old school SCI FI channel film that you'd watch in the middle of a weekday. Really not worth watching in my opinion. About 30 minutes in I was ready to call it quits and rate it in IMDb, but decided I should give it a try if I'm going to write a review about it- maybe it has an amazing, redeeming ending- nope, it didn't. At the end I was even a little confused about the intentions of the bad guys. Were they really religious or something? Are they feminists? What exactly was their motivation to stalk these woods?? There was the guy's name who made the film all over the place too which seems annoying and like he is deliberately trying to shove his name down your face: Patrick Rea: Arbor Demon! Arbor Demon BY Patrick Rea! A Patrick Rea Film: Arbor Demon! I mean, I don't know who this guy even is and he pastes his name everywhere possible. The only good thing about this movie is that I know who made it so I can avoid his crap in the future!

'Arbor Demon' (aka 'Enclosure') drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was very weak, its worst elements being pretty awful, with a lot more wrong than right. 'Arbor Demon' is not great, or good, has a fair share of problems (fairly big ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There are however a few decent, even good, qualities in 'Arbor Demon'.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric, likewise with the decent way it's shot. The music is suitably spooky and quirky and doesn't distract at all from the atmosphere, while not exactly enhancing it.

Found too that 'Arbor Demon' started off fairly promisingly with a few effectively spooky moments.

However, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary it got. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours insult the intelligence. Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The acting is also terrible, Jake Busey in particular was just bizarre. The effects are ropy at best.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense. A lot of the film completely fails to make sense, both in underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations. The villains are poorly used and pose very little threat. The last third badly sags in momentum and the atmosphere completely falls flat, though the end does convey the message better than expected.

In conclusion, very weak but not unwatchable. 3/10 Bethany Cox