Desolation

Going into Desolation I had no idea what to expect, it was a nameless pick & mix movie for me.

It tells the story of a pair of friends and a teenage boy who go hiking in the woods only to be stalked by a mysterious figure in black.

It's very paint by number stuff but is done well enough to be entertaining.

Our delightful stalker has no gimmick, he has no motivation and I really didn't like that. This Rob Zombie looking git had no character at all which hurt the film.

Ultimately it delivers provided you aren't seeking originality or surprises. Its copy and paste the movie with every cliche in the book, but is just good enough to get past that.

The Good:

Well made

Fairly tense

Decent finale

The Bad:

Nothing original

Dull antagonist

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Maybe the killers motive was that kid being really annoying

The script is so one layered and even the conversations if you listen, don't actually make sense between the characters and it sounds like they're reading right off a page. The setting is very cool, and the actor playing the son is the most likable in the script. But it felt like the Director just filmed straight from the page and didn't give a hoot about making it natural.

Nothing really new here except I don't think that I've ever watched a movie where the protagonists decide to go to sleep when they know they're being stalked through the woods as much as this group did...who would be able to sleep?!?!

The small cast did good with what they were given. The initial set-up was tense enough and the killer was somewhat interesting in a mysterious way when he was kept farther away from the group.

But as soon as the killer reached their campsite, the characters start doing dumb things and the killer wasn't so interesting anymore. I was surprised he was able to attack anyone in the dark woods considering he never took his sunglasses off! He had a very blank expression on his face throughout the movie and the most emotion that comes from him is when the kid breaks his sunglasses LOL!

A woman, her son and a friend of hers take the ashes of her recently deceased husband to the top of a mountain they use to frequent. Things go well until a strange man wearing sunglasses begins to stalk them.

This one is a slow burner with some decent dialogue and character building but remains mediocre as far as the story goes. A couple of parts may make you cringe and you may wonder how this guy can see out of his glasses at night, but just keep an open mind.

Nothing too earth shattering but not completely boring either.

I guess when you are setting out to make a "dead camper" type horror movie you should really pay attention to the impact the killer or stalker will have on the overall affect. We find out in the first few minutes that this mute dude seems like he got lost in the woods coming home from a rock concert and is to shy to ask for help finding his buddies. Any horror movie creep or killer that you feel like you could just walk up to them at any time and say hey $#@ head take a hike, is not very intimidating. I think had they cast a better stalker this movie would have received much higher grades.