User reviews

This is now, officially, my personal pet peeve about most movies: they have a lot going for them in a very narrow, familiar genre fashion, but then waste it by not making any effort to be original, or intelligent when the plot or action finally kicks in. As if it doesn't matter what they do after a certain point, as if anyone watching the film won't care if it's stops making sense or becomes so downright stereotypical and bland and DUMB that it's kind of an insult. This film starts fairly good (for such a well worn genre convention: city folks go into country and find danger), nothing exceptional by any stretch but the actors do alright with rather dull characters, the cinematography is amazing and the countryside is awesome. Pretty by the book (one character is "strong" and overcoming cancer so you might guess who's gonna survive) but I was interested. They even make a point of what amazing negotiators these folks are so I was expecting that might come into play when they run afoul of the local loonies. But no. It actually just gets forgotten and how they behave from their first meeting on is basically guaranteed to allow the stupid, predictable plot to unfold after that. Very quickly the best thing about the film becomes the interplay between the locals which is amusing in a believable fashion and, thank god, not played broadly for laughs! Their performances are also the best, and if only the script didn't let them down when it came to what happens this film might have been a real winner. They had everything they needed to make a successful genre entry except the ability (or willingness) to fix a mediocre script that falls apart in the last half. It's one thing to suggest the city folks are ill equipped to deal with survival at this level (see Deliverance) but this movie just has the characters become idiots. If you don't consider a directors job to include caring about the script, or character actions, you could say it's still handled well enough but all the good points the film earned in the beginning are wasted.

My four points are for the beautiful actresses. Otherwise, the story is a silly one. Three strong women and two weak men are on a trek through the wilderness and one of the men somehow gets a large splinter stuck in his leg. Uh oh; they ignore a no trespassing sign and the predictable bad men arrive and make life difficult for the group. The final ten minutes are ridiculous. Avoid Hillwalkers.

Where you can see the small budget.

The actors and the story are not convincing.

All in all, a very weak film.

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A good film to watch. I would ignore the negative reviews but then everyone has different tastes. Yes, things go wrong and it's great to see a movie where you would do things differently if you were one of the characters.

It is a good watch, it is not going to be your favourite movie ever but it's a GOOD watch. I like it the style and characters. Some dark humour too and it really is like a film where you will go "oh no, they shouldn't have done that". Also for those go walking and hiking, it's great to remind of you what NOT to do. Overall, it really is a good film and worth a watch for sure.

Slick and well done. Yes the story is predictable and has a twisted ending. But its got a nice dark humour about it. Great scenery shots of irish bog.

Unbelievable. This doesn't even qualify as the worst B-movie fodder you'd find in a bargain basket. How this garbage had a 30 thousand Euro budget is highly questionable.

Dear budding filmmakers, this is how you don't make a feature. Case in point: lousy story, wooden characters, amateurish dialogue. Where was the script supervisor on this? Maybe they called in sick for the entire shoot. Who knows.

Let's not forget the farmers who are suddenly psychotic murderers out of nowhere? Trespass on our land and we'll kill you. Eh, ok. Wish I has such genius ideas.

And what was with the deer heads all of a sudden? Oh, so scary.. deer heads. And the opening shot is cringe. Guy in a mask with antlers. Terrifying stuff. Wish I had such an imagination, really.

Was this actually directed by someone? Or by some people who haven't got a clue about what they are doing?

This is a generic stink bomb, don't waste your time. Doesn't look like it had a general cinema release. No wonder. That 30 thousand should have been put to better use, say a donation to the homeless.

Yeah yeah girl power (or is it grrrrrl power?) and all that ~rah rah.

Political correctness and all pushed to one side (preferably off a tall cliff) this was a well-made, well-acted and beautifully lensed flick!

The direction was perfect and so was the pacing. The characters were well-drawn and a couple of them were very 3 dimensional.

The ending was cathartic and the lead-up was somewhat emotional.

It's a well-trod path this type of movie but like the giallo or other formulaic genres of movie, if you get the tropes right and you pay attention to detail and direct and act with care you can create a movie that will last.

Well done.

Some might say if you give 100,000,000 monkeys (I don't know the exact amount) a load of typewriters they would eventually write Shakespeare.

Well, this film, yeah, I think they put one monkey in a wheelie bin, shook it around a lot and pushed it down a big hill, then gave him/her/they a typewriter....and.....well...then it wrote and filmed this movie!!!

I knew from the onset this was not going to fair well. I thought at first it was the filming but then quickly realised it was also the script and acting that were to doom this film. Clearly there was no budget for effects nor post production.

Not sure how it can be classed as a horror either? I've experienced more horror and suspense when I opened my GCSE results letter.

Sorry, but awful. Points for the location and a few stupidly funny lines.

This was not a horror movie to me. It wasn't really good. The actors/acting wasn't great. The movie had no suspense or thrills to it. You could really figure out what was about to happen in every scene.

There were actually done funny parts in the movie. And I never found out who the girl was at the start of the movie. Could be because I lost interest in the movie and started doing other things.

I wouldn't watch it again. It wasn't a total waste to me at least I was able to read and reply to some emails while this movie was on.

I read that some have compared this to Wrong Turn. It's not the same.

Hillwalkers is mind-bendingly terrible. I won't describe the plot because there is no plot. If you want something inherently bad, watch this absolute mess. It does not even qualify as "so bad its good". This is genuinely one of the worst things I have ever seen.

Do yourself a favour, avoid this because you do not deserve to have this much of your life wasted.

It's not just bad, it's eye-wateringly awful. There are scenes in this that Tommy Wiseau, who made 'the Room', would have said, ''I'm sorry, that's actually not up to snuff - we're going to have to take that out.' This is not cinema; this is something so staggeringly self-regarding."

FYI, 'the Room' is widely considered to be one of the worst films of all time. Hillwalkers makes 'the Room' look like 'Citizen Kane'!.

There was clearly no direction given to the actors, as the performances... well, the very bad performances, are in a stratosphere of their own. Hillwalkers is not even worth seeing for a laugh.

The director should probably find a new hobby, gardening perhaps? But if the same lack of skill is applied to that endevour, God help us all...

I gave this film a go as it had a little of the Blair Witch Project atmosphere about it and the intro at the start with the woman in red was quite well done. The rest is embarassing. Not talking about the acting which wasn't too bad although the characters of this film were not developed and devoid of personality. How can you criticise a film that cost 30,000 to make? I don't know but it seems 'off'. Apart from the intro the rest does not seem to have been developed at all. Cringeworthy stuff and hard to believe. In Ireland if you travel more than 2 steps forward unless you are in a national park you are going to hear or see a car. This can't have been a national park because of all the private property signs. So its just impossible to believe they are isolated in such a way. All without mobile phone coverage and no thought given as to what to do in the event of an accident even though they are dressed up in stylish hiking clothes they did not think about what to do in an emergency. Quite a dumb bunch of hikers. So why did they send off one person on their own from a group of 6 to get help and not two? I guess so that she can be terrifed later on. When you make characters dumb in order to force through a plot it ends up with characters that you want to see killed straight away to punish them for their stupidity. Reminds me of the League of Gentlemen on steroids and seems insulting to anyone who is not from Dublin. The whole thing looks like a a poor Rockshore beer commercial and lacks credibility and certainly lacks movement or pace. Actually painful waiting for each scene to end and move on to the next one.

Hillwalkers: An upland bog Irish horror film. Five hikers take to the hills as a team-building exercise, they are an annoying bunch, they set off in bad weather, only one of them is really familiar with the area. We have other reasons for knowing that this won't end well, in the opening scenes we see a woman hunted and shot by a man wearing a skull mask. The happy hikers stumble on, one them suffering a serious injury. Unable to proceed through waterlogged land they proceed up a hill to find ominous no trespassing signs with deer skulls attached. One goes back to the their car while the others go through woods, finding evidence of illegal hunting and run foul of local hillbilly farmers, Things pivot into an experience of existential terror for the hikers as they are tortured by the feral farmers. From casual remarks by the hillbillies we learn that the hikers aren't their first "guests". A life and death struggle ensues. This really is an Irish Deliverance with chases across the moorlands, avoiding farmers with sniper rifles. Close quarter fighting with anything which comes to hand. The bogs, hills and forests are gloomy and foggy, adding to the atmosphere of dread. The acting isn't always great on the part of the hikers but Miriam (Aoife Honohan). Susan (Áine Flanagan) and Lisa (Elise Brennan) eventually show their mettle (and act better) as they fight back against their captors. The feral farmers are fiendishly fearsome, leader Neil (Gerry O'Brien.) oozing evil and Steevy (Mark Agar) as his psychotic nephew. Writer/Director has done wonders making this film on a budget of e30,000, 7/10.

I have no issue with small budget films and in some ways the director did a good job. I certainly felt that the landscape and decent cinematography were going to make for an atmospheric and tense thriller. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here due to poor writing which failed to create sympathetic characters or deliver any tension whatsoever.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, the real problem I had was during the hikers' initial encounter with the farmers. I am unsure why there was an attempt to create unrealistic and unwarranted tension here because it would just never play out like that. And, why does the supposedly strong and assertive woman let the feeble chap lead the negotiations when she has said she will do exactly the opposite just minutes before? A woeful scene that made no sense.

Sadly, none of the characters are even remotely believable and are, largely, so dislikable, that you don't route for any of them. Of course, suspension of disbelief is often required for this type of film, but there are just so many gaping plot holes and nonsensical elements that it was too much for me to engage with on any level.

For the budget given, the movie was fantastic. The acting was incredible and the scenes were suspenseful and had me on the edge of my seat. The costumes were grungy and the story was excellent. Keep up the great work. Mark Agar is my inspiration, he got me through tough times. I wish he could come to my 11th birthday party.

I love these type of movies . Just a well shot slasher with a modest budget (30,000) . I'd be keen to see what the artists and director could do with larger funding . Casting was decent, but with a stand out performance from Mark Agar. Out of all the crazy killer farmers , he was the one who freaked me out the most . You know a villain is done well, when you just want hind dead as soon as you seen him on screen. Plus as an Irish man myself it's great to see more films being produced on home soil . Some of the scenery in the film is breath taking, but it also set the scene to give a gritty and dirty feel to it .

Across the haunting desolate trails and woods of Ireland, Hillwalkers works really well as a slasher film, with fun kills and gorgeous photography, and a carefully unravelling plot. Authentic character motives and a slow brewing bit of turmoil. Refreshing as always to see some daylight horror, Tom Cosgrove has crafted a really enjoyable watch, with solid performances and twists. The haunting gods eye shots sprawling across the sky, creating the sense that our characters are truly in the middle of nowhere, while also managing to maintain a sense of beauty for the Irish wilderness. Hillwalkers is explorative, violent and at times is very funny.

9/10

I am liking this film in a scarily relatable way.

Some of the characters are very true to life even in the year 2025.

Being Irish myself, from the city I moved to rural Ireland.

I hasten to add that the physical violence, portrayed by the characters towards outsiders from the city is not my experience.

I have however, had verbal abuse and hostility from locals in my very small rural community because I am from the city and not welcomed. No other reason at all, which I find very difficult to live with. It's very unsettling.

Because of this I'm now moving back to live in the city, Any Irish City, as soon as possible, for some of the reasons addressed in this film.

A lot, of older people, 30+ age group, in some, not all, rural communities, Do Not like Outsiders and are not afraid to let you know. It can border on racism to be honest.

Hopefully, the rural GEN Z who are much better educated and open minded, will change this horrible dynamic and it will be a much much better world for that.

This film is not afraid to highlight, albeit, in an extremely exaggerated way, this horrible societal dynamic that is still happening.

I'm liking this film.

Straw Dogs springs to mind where ignorance and envy rule the thinking process.

The script is excellent and I have experienced the profanity used in the film directed at me.

IMHO, the acting and directing is very good.

A very good social commentary in a very competent film, delivered by everyone involved.