Cabin Girl

After a highway accident during a road trip to get over the death of her parents, a travel-vlogger restarts her channel from a cabin she's decided to settle down in. But is the previous resident really gone?

Lively start, ends up a mess. The motivations of the characters are inept, not only at the highest level involving the trauma of the protagonist, but at the mid-level in the way others become involved with her, down to the most basic level of why characters move around in a scene.

What on earth has the death of her parents got to do with the story? Or the death of the previous occupant? Why on earth is there a romance with the mechanic? How on earth does she plot-point-alert bump into the doctor and the bar owner when she's going away from the van that she was just walking toward? It's like things just happen 'for reasons'. To put it another way, the action does not flow from specific motivation; rather, motivation is tacked on to the action so that you feel the director's hand.

The production values are mostly not bad, and I admit that I had a sense that the endless Nancy Drew cliches were a trail of symbols that would lead to a bizarre reveal of the character's psychology. But in the end it feels like a child showing you a colour-by-numbers picture plastered with crazy crayon.

The editing declines in quality, with too much footage of how a character gets from point A to point B, and repetition of shots that don't tell us anything new - particularly of the stalker, and that damn floorboard. The spooky bits ain't all that, with no feel for shadow and the music too obvious. Add in some flabby dialogue, and it's no wonder some of the performances are less than convincing.

I kinda liked the song over the end credits, but ... no - somebody is to blame.

I'm not a huge movie buff, although the genre that typically garners my attention are horror/thriller films. My favorite films are Anti-Christ and the Hellraisers. I can't say that this film depicts either of those styles a lot, although there is a darker-themed story behind it all to keep me intrigued.

Cabin Girl does a great job at keeping you guessing at who is the "bad guy" in the film. There are just enough questions raised during the film that make you second guess your answer on the meaning/intention of the movie.

I really liked the actor who played the mechanic. Seemed genuine in his love/affection for the Cabin Girl.

I think a 2nd viewing would be worth while to tie any loose ends and to see if everything matches up to the 2nding. I probably will do so in the next few months. Worth a watch for sure.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film.

Being a TubiTV Original, and all...I expected it to be far worse than it is.

It's actually quite an engaging little film.

One that's simple, yet effective.

In it, we find ourselves following a young social media influencer, who has taken up the van life.

Only to leave it behind, when she finds an affordable cabin, in a remote, rural town.

However, it turns out that the cabin has a dark past.

Which she's driven to uncover...you know...for the views.

Only to find out she's asking questions, she might not be ready to face the answers to.

To keep things interesting, they add in a bit of a twist, and some misdirection.

Which gives the film an air of mystery.

Although it's more of a supernatural thriller than it is a horror.

It's definitely worth watching.

Especially compared to a lot of the other original films that TubiTV has to offer.

Even if it is a bit basic.

3.5 out of 10.

Cabing Girl follows Van Girl, a vlogger who tracked her travels in her van after her parents die. She switches to a cabin after she has an accident involving a deet and has a resulting head injury. As she settles into life in a fixer-up cabin in an isolated rural small town. Then, weirdness starts happening.

While this film as a slower pace, and lots of sunlight that can be confusing for a typical found footage films, Cabin Girl is a slowburn that explores the main character's experience of supernatural phenomenon and symptoms of her head trauma. This makes for confusing viewing as the watcher isn't certain what is happening. Add in a potential stalker, and Cabin Girl had me guessing on my red herrings.

Easy to watch with decent performances by the actors. Plotting and script are okay but not advanced. Overall, it made for decent viewing.

Ava Robbins, a vlogger known as "Van Girl", vanishes under mysterious circumstances from the public eye following a deer-related accident, only to reemerge post-hiatus as "cabin girl," seemingly happy to trade her van lifestyle for a serene cabin existence. Nevertheless, Ava's once-upbeat influencer life takes a dark turn as she encounters paranormal hauntings and a very human threat in the form of a shady stalker. Her gradual spiral into paranoia makes her hostile towards those around her, until the pieces finally fall into place after the one hour run-time.

It's slow, a little boring and difficult to root for Ava, especially for the first hour; but the good music and cinematography of nature in the small town makes it bearable. Best to watch with low expectations and without any spoilers!