cobbler88

I'll be a departure from a good number of reviewers and spare the synopsis. It's at the top of the page, for Christ's sake.

The direction was fairly minimal but I thought effective. An entire film shot in booths has its limits. With a couple of exceptions, I also didn't think the performances were that bad, especially given what little they had to play off of. Again, the limits that have to be dealt with given the approach.

I liked the premise, but it needs to come together at the end to be satisfying, and I don't think it really got there. I'm not saying you have to LIKE the resolution, but you do have to at least recognize it as the culmination of every bread crumb that's been laid before you, and there was too much that fell short.

The movie is obviously all dialogue, but surprisingly little of that dialogue actually contributed to the story. I recognize that maybe it was revelatory to some degree as to the mechanics of each character, but even as you watch it you know it's not really fleshing out the mystery in any substantive way. It's just padding. So, you're basically listening to a handful of archetypes blather on like any typical student does (to the ear of an actual adult). I'm guessing this may have first been done as a 30-minute student film with 3-4 fewer characters.

There has been mention of the anti-male talking points. Those were minimal, but once the first one hit, it took up a chair in the back of my mind and never really went away, right up through the false credits which included the final shot at men. It made it extra delicious that this shot not only was a shade off of the proper use of the term "derivative" to describe male producers, but it was misspelled as well. :)

If this were a typical indie horror pic of this quality, I'd recommend it as ambient noise while you're busying yourself with other things. But this one requires that you sit and actively listen to it, so it is held to a higher level before it can get a nod.

It's not garbage. If you're really interested in this approach to storytelling, give it a try. Maybe you'll get more out of it than I did. But I'm guessing you'll likely click out of it a little disappointed.

Take care.

I hate to give something one star. It seems excessive and hacky. But this was basically all atmosphere and no story, and sound effects and shots of the forest can only take you so far. Neither character was likeable, so you can toss that out the window as well even though the acting wasn't horrible for people who are fluent in English - but not CONVERSATIONALLY fluent. As in, maybe someone should have been brought in to smooth out the rough edges in the dialogue. The blurb for this on Tubi is "A young couple on vacation at a remote destination are (should be "is") stalked by something evil that tries to claim their lives when one of them is mortally injured.". I'm 'not even sure how much of that is even accurate, having watched the film, beyond they seemed to be at a remote house. Maybe it's genius. Maybe if you leave the entire story to the audience to fill in the blanks, each person will fill them in as per their personal preferences and everyone walks away happy. I just need a little more.

The only real positive thing I can point out about this film is that at least it's over before you hit the 90-minute mark. The boilerplate stuff for this genre (character intro, trip to the location, irrelevant grab-assing) that other films move on from at about the 20- to 25-minute mark extend through about 45-50 minutes. Seriously, you really don't have anything that resembles a functioning story up to and including that point.. By the time the story actually seems to be advancing a little at about the 60- to 65-minute mark, through the ridiculous ending, you just really don't care anymore. You're certainly not invested in any of the characters so you're not concerned with what becomes of them, which pretty much eliminates any suspense. I end up watching a lot of bad horror because I'm looking for a few gems. I don't expect them to be masterpieces. Just give me a decent twist or competent performances. Maybe a fresh take on an old story. I can honestly say that I can't remember a worse horror film that didn't include heavy doses of shooting day for night.