So, strangely perhaps, I actually liked this movie. It's yet another in the genre of people with a camera, lost footage found, etc., etc. so it isn't entirely original. In fact that's becoming so cliche these days that it's tempting to just forget about it and turn to something else. And admittedly this takes the genre to a somewhat ridiculous extreme. Everybody has cameras! Everybody seems to be documenting everything they do - which is certainly handy when you encounter aliens and terrifying creatures out in the woods! And, yes, it's a sign of a movie being made on a bare bones budget, and it has all the challenges involved - shaky cameras, blurry footage - which kind of makes sense, but doesn't necessarily make for a really good movie. And yet ...
Something here worked for me. I rather liked this. Everything revolves around a spot in the woods in Arizona where several otherwise unconnected people independently find themselves, but experience the same terrifying thing. It begins with a US Air Force base noting that "something" is falling - but they don't know what it is. A meteor perhaps? The next day it's found by a park ranger, who discovers that it's an alien ship of some kind and that there's some strange fungus like material growing around it. She gets bitten by something - which starts a day of terror for everybody in the area.
It may be cliche. It may be low budget. It may have a virtually unknown cast. Fair enough - it may not be that good. But there was enough going on that was good that I liked it. First, it was a very creepy movie. The mystery was strange; the events were strange; the creatures were - well - weird. That all worked. And I thought that Robert Conway (who directed it) made some really good use of the woods environment and of the darkness to often give us just glimpses ... glimpses of whatever it was, but without enough detail to really know what it was. For all its weaknesses, it worked well, I thought - up to the end, which was actually rather disappointing. Nothing was cleared up. Nothing was really answered. The only survivor (Collin - played by Clint James) is a psychological mess after his night of sheer terror. He says enough to make us think that this was an "accident" of sorts - that whatever happened, the aliens didn't mean it, but we really don't find out very much. A little bit more closure would have been nice.
Still, in my opinion, if you like movies that are effectively creepy, this is short and worth taking in. I rather liked it. (6/10)
