Indigenous

Indigenous offers the well-known concept of lost tourists on an exotic location where they meet hostile entity. It highly resembles other fiction movies or even miniseries from Discovery channel. To its credit, it gives nice visual of the setting and there is effort to produce horror, but ultimately it is a straightforward and tired endeavor.

The story might work to its advantage as audience gets exactly what they expect. There's little diversity here, even in recent year there are several movies with same theme. A few college kids take vacation in a beautiful place, and then they are inexplicably going to ominous site even though there are plenty of visible warnings.

Visual is pretty good, the use of location is commendable, although when the encounter happens during nighttime, it reverts to jittery cam. The movie is shot mostly on third person, so it shouldn't encounter this issue like many mockumentary movies. Fortunately, the practical effect works well and it doesn't shy away from displaying the monster instead of maintaining blurry shots.

Script does what it needs to, though surprisingly the actors perform admirably. They mostly look genuine, either through occasionally adequate presentation of the horror or the acting itself. In latter half, the movie opts for different gimmick and tries to broaden the scale, a decent effort but not entirely novel.

Indigenous is exactly one would expect from lost tourist horror theme, it's far from innovative, but it might just be sufficient in the small scope.

RELEASED IN 2014 and directed by Alastair Orr, "Indigenous" covers events in Panama when five college-age youths vacation there for some fun in the sun. Things go awry when they visit a beautiful waterfall in a forbidden area of the jungle.

This is a professionally made monster-in-the-forest flick with a competent no-name cast highlighted by gorgeous Panamanian locations and winsome Laura Penuela in a bikini. Precious Lindsey McKeon is another highlight on the female front.

My only problems are that (1.) the plot's hackneyed, particularly bringing to mind "The Last Tribe" (2009), which is marginally better in some ways. Other flicks come to mind, like "Touristas" (2007) and "The Ruins" (2008), which are superior to the other two. (2.) There's no depth in the plot: This is a monster movie focusing on partying youths getting chased in the forest by savage creatures and that's it. As such, the film's not very compelling despite the horror and thrills. On the bright side, the last act throws in an unexpected curve ball and shows that the movie wasn't micro-budget. Another positive is that this is arguably the best and most realistic chupacabra flick out there (keeping in mind that I've only seen four such movies).

Speaking of which, 'chupacabra' is a Spanish word, which literally means "goat-sucker" (from chupar "to suck" and cabra "goat"). There are two varieties of this cryptozoological beast: (1.) a reptile-like creature with leathery/scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back; and (2.) a hairless form of canine with a pronounced spinal ridge and prominent eye sockets, fangs, and claws. "Indigenous" interestingly features neither of these, although the creatures come closer to the first description, I suppose.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 26 minutes was shot in Panama. WRITER: Max Roberts.

GRADE: B-/C+ (5.5/10)

Aahh, horror and all that it comes with it. Same lines, same plot, same surroundings, same reactions and last but not least, same characters.

Still, a far better production than say, Animal, easily two steps down compared to The Descent, overall, an OK movie, for a night with the friends. While most of it was easily anticipated and had the same moves every horror has for the last 20 years, it managed to act OK, and keep you there, in front of the screen without leaving it too soon or skipping forward. Don't expect anything decent, little below it, but below indeed.

Anyway monster horrors are my favorite, so for me it was nice seeing one more. But I wouldn't recommend it to everyone out there. Maybe try The Cave, or The Ruins instead. Those are more likely to impress.

Cheers!

Prey's trite premise made me feel like I had already seen the film several times before. I hadn't. There's no way I'd watch this garbage more than once.

The formulaic storyline sees a group of young backpackers in Panama hiking to a scenic waterfall in a remote part of the jungle, despite being warned not to do so by friendly local Julio. The travellers' trip turns into a nightmare when they find themselves hunted by blood sucking cryptids, the chupacabra.

Reminiscent of countless other 'horrific vacation' movies, including An American Werewolf in London, Hostel, Turistas, Chernobyl Diaries, and The Ruins, with more than a touch of The Descent thrown in for good measure, this lame creature feature brings nothing new to the table, director Alastair Orr content to wheel out all of the expected genre clichés: rapid, wobbly editing and dark cinematography that prevents us from getting a good look at the monsters for most of the movie; 'found footage' shot on the characters' phones; and gutteral noises to creep out the viewer and sudden screeches to make them jump. Even the survivors are predictable from the outset.

Technically, the film is slick enough, and the cast do a reasonable job, but when the finished product is so derivative, what is the point?

2.5 out of 10, rounded up to 3 for latin hottie Laura Penuela as Carmen.

Below mediocre, thoroughly amateurish attempt making a survival horror film in the jungles of Panama. The film is about a group of friends who decide to explore an impenetrable area called the Darién Gap.

The Darién Gap (Spanish: Región del Darién or Tapón del Darién) is a break in the Pan-American Highway consisting of a large swath of undeveloped swampland and forest within Panama's Darién Province in Central America and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department in South America.

Having learned from a friend about a beautiful waterfall in that area, which has a pool very good to swim in, they decide to undertake an expedition despite the friend's warning about a vicious creature that inhabits the area. This creature, the Chupacabra, is thought to be an evil spirit inhabiting the body of a half-man, half-animal being.

The film opens fairly straightforward as most films in this genre do. A group of tourists enjoying themselves, sucking up the atmosphere, drinking, making love to their girlfriends etc., etc. Then they decide that rather then surfing at the coast, they do something adventurous and explore this impenetrable area called the Darién Gap. They find the waterfall as the friend said. They then bathe in the pool below the waterfall for a while, till one of the couple decides to leave and do deeper into the jungle. Then all hell breaks loose...

The director, I feel, is unable into inject a real spark into this film. The actors that were chosen did their jobs as per the script. But the script itself is so obviously dull and predictable, that we already know what direction the film is headed at. In the past I saw a survival action-horror film that set the benchmark for all movies of its genre. This film was Predator, a 1987 film directed by John McTiernan. Also note that The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter is also a survival-horror film. Basis of such movies is an outer-space alien killing off humans.

More films you may like: Dawn of the Dead(1978), Tremors(1990), Jaws(1975), Shakma(1990), Prince of Darkness(1987), 30 Days of Night(2007).

Thank you for reading this review. May you live long and prosper.