The Body Tree

I'm a thriller junkie and I liked that this film did something different. Not a perfect movie but I liked that it kept me guessing. Some really tense scenes and back and forth dialogue. Not for everyone I'm sure but if you're like me and looking for something different in horror, something more suspenseful, this is a cool twist.

It keeps you guessing, its well shot, and the acting is not horrible.

A horror/murder mystery that I enjoyed, give it a shot.

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

The first thing to say about the film is that the acting is something terrible and terrible and for this reason alone the film deserves to be destroyed rather than watched, then the plot is very banal and in any case so convoluted as to be unnecessarily complicated to understand. But it's complicated because it doesn't make any sense and the ending then has a twist which to say is stupid is to give it a compliment because it's completely useless and it claims to explain the film with a little final explanation that makes everything even more senseless and ugly.

The Body Tree is heavily influenced by films such as Ten Little Indians, and The Thing, with a group of people in an isolated location trying to second guess who the killer is. However, the plot turns things on their head in an original way.

Yes it's got plenty of cliched jump scares and slasher movie stereotypes, but this is definitely one of the better horrors I've seen in recent years. The Siberian setting (not the snowbound variety) is distinctive, the acting is decent enough, and the characters are developed enough to have some investment in their fates. Admittedly some are unpleasant.

The group are brought together to celebrate the life of a mutual friend who was murdered. There are some flashbacks that reveal more of the events of that incident, and it keeps the story flowing and entertaining.

It's well worth a watch, and I'm surprised it hasn't had a more positive reaction.

The problem with Body tree is it doesn't know what it wants to be- a horror or a murder thriller and ultimately it ends up being neither. This is a problem with a lot of indie films- they lack a vision and blueprint. (Avoid it)