Preservation

RELEASED IN 2014 and written & directed by Christopher Denham, "Preservation" chronicles events in the forests north of Los Angeles when two brothers & one of their wives embark on a camping trip in a closed preservation. Horror ensues when they are literally marked by some creepy pranksters... or is the culprit one of them? Pablo Schreiber & Aaron Staton play the brothers while Wrenn Schmidt plays the wife.

This is a competently made slasher-in-the-woods flick with a fairly engaging story, convincing actors, nice locations, a professional score and all-around effective filmmaking. It doesn't hurt that Wrenn is easy on the eyes. There are predictable aspects, like the red herring in the latter first act, not to mention obvious elements borrowed from similar films, like "Deliverance," "Eden Lake," "Rambo 2," "I Spit on Your Grave" and even "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2." Yet these things don't really harm the movie because they're pretty much par for the course in low-budget independent horror like this.

Unfortunately, the film is ruined by constant "Yeah, right" moments, like a character turning his/her back on a wounded adversary, which I counted happening four times (!); and what occurred at the campsite is absurd. Another example is the way people constantly do noisy things in the quiet of the woods without the other person(s) hearing, like climbing on top of a porta potty. Why Sure!

The director is clearly a professional-class filmmaker, but he needs to learn to work out implausible kinks in his screenplays, which just cause any viewer over 12-13 to roll-their-eyes. Maybe he should hire a writer, at least for fine-tuning scripts. It's a matter of using more imagination. The reason "Deliverance" (1972) is still talked about today is precisely because everything in it was BELIEVABLE. Nevertheless, there's a lot of good in "Preservation" and I encourage fans of the horror-in-the-woods genre to check it out.

THE FILM RUNS 1 hours & 27 minutes and was shot in Santa Clarita & Los Angeles, California.

GRADE: C/C- (4.5/10)

Preservation is in my opinion, this generation's version of The Most Dangerous Game.

When the film starts it introduces us to the three main characters: Sean (Pablo Schreiber) a war veteran with dark past, his brother Mike (Aaron Staton) and his RN wife Wit (Wrenn Schmidt) who has a secret of her own. The start up is a nice setup for the weekend, a hunting trip (in an abandoned state park). When Wit finds out that a so-called couples weekend with her husband turns itself on its head as Mike joins the party, tensions begin to arise. Mike and Wit are having martial problems and its apparent more so when Sean enters the picture.

The two brothers seem to have a kind of love/hate relationship. As the day continues, tensions seem to rise as Mike continues to ignore his wife and stay focused on Sean and his work phone. Wit and Sean, as the night goes on seem to develop somewhat tense friendship which unbeknowst to them Mike is witnessing. By this time, night has fallen and personas and characterization has developed amongst our leads. The night ends with the three going to bed by the light of the campfire. This is where the story takes a turn....

*On a personal note, I was NOT expecting this turn of events - my initial idea of this script was way off base as I went into this blind regarding the premise*

A major turn of events happens during the night which isn't unveiled until morning, when our leads wake up and all of their personal belongings have been taken! I am talking about everything (including the tent they were sleeping in). This alone in my opinion is a good set-up for psychological horror as the direction is bizarre yet occasionally eerie. This chain of events turns everyone on everyone as they are yet unaware of the actual horror that will befall them. The actions that take place after I will admit some are typical clichés that are seen from most "stupid people" in "most horror films", but that doesn't take away from the tension that picks up. The three realize that unknown and unseen assailants are hunting them with their own weapons as well as using the "need to survive" against them as they begin to run out of time.

The first half of the film is a somewhat character study as well as a philosophy of the appreciation of nature. The climax of the film and the unveiling of the assailants (especially how they are acclimated to the violence) is shocking and almost realistic in realtime.

This film has been referred to as a sorta "You're Next" kinda film, but I don't see how. Granted the film may have several plot holes and some scenes may have been executed (pun intended) with something more in mind, but dammit this was a damn fun film and had several moments of tension. I'd recommend watching this film and I myself will be adding this to my collection.

If you decide to see "Preservation", there is a strong likelihood that you'll find the plot familiar. That's because it dates all the way back to 1924, with Richard Connell's story "The Most Dangerous Game". A few years later, the story would be brought to the big screen in the classic story by the same name, starring Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks. Since then, the story has been re-written time and time again--appearing in television shows (such as "Get Smart", believe it or not) and various movies. So, you cannot exactly give this film many points when it comes to originality.

Like the old story, someone likes hunting. But instead of animals, their quarry is people. The only huge difference here is that you really don't know who the killer or killers are until the end of the film--whereas in the original story is was some twisted Russian aristocrat. Otherwise, the three victims spend more than half the film on the run--trying to avoid being someone's trophy. There really isn't a whole lot more to the story than this.

On the plus side, the film is very tense. Some of the acting is pretty good and despite a small budget, the movie looks good. I also liked the identity of the hunters--this was an interesting twist. On the negative, the film isn't exactly fun to watch. After all, folks are getting butchered and there isn't a whole lot of subtlety about it. I also was irked by a cliché that I often see in films---someone disables their attacker and instead of finishing off the killer, they almost immediately turn their back on them so that they can be murdered. I don't know about you, but if someone is trying to kill me, I don't beat them up and then turn my back unless I am 110% sure that they are truly dead. Overall, I don't consider it a bad nor a good film but there isn't enough about it that would have me recommend you go see it. If you hate violent films, there's also another reason to avoid this one.

I saw promise in this film. In the future, I'd like to see these actors and filmmakers do a more challenging project--something with more originality and which allow them to expand on their skills.

Really I would rate this movie at about a 5.5 or 6 but I felt compelled to level out the strangely low ratings for this flick.

This is a solid movie. Good acting, well paced, artfully shot. Was it all that original? No, not really. It deserves to be compared to films like "Eden Lake" and "The King of the Mountain" as the plot is startlingly similar. Sure, both of those are far better - more disturbing (to say the least) and ahead of their time in terms of plot - but I also can't complain about a single thing in this movie.

So if you expect to be blown out of the water, this isn't your jam. If you require horror to be gory or over the top, look elsewhere. But if you're avoiding a research paper (or three) and need a good horror movie to break up the dreck which so often populates this wonderful genre of ours then this isn't time wasted.

Preservation is meant to deliver a strong message for a thriller movie, it could have done so if only the narrative made a lick of sense. There is a good set-up for horror as the direction is bizarre yet it's occasionally eerie. The worst obstacle for this film is logic, characters would to the stupidest things only to be granted plot armor at later scenes. It has little to no consistency on how the sequences actually play out as though the movie presents obscurity for the sake of being edgy or meaningful and ends up accomplishing none of them.

Three people go into the woods for a weekend of hunting spree. Sean (Pablo Schreiber) is a war veteran with dark past, he goes to the hunting trip with his brother Mike (Aaron Staton) who brings his wife Wit (Wrenn Schmidt). After a night, it has become clear that they are being hunted by unknown individual or individuals. The first half is about life philosophy lecture of hunting or being hunted. It's presented with cliché remarks and not quite appealing.

The three main actors are mainstay for TV series and supporting roles, they are pretty good for setting up the tone. The movie picks up pace very quickly as the trip turns grisly. Sadly, the scenes don't have much clarity. At some points the protagonist would do highly questionable acts, ones with little chance of surviving, then it's the protagonist's turn to be dumb. They would have a hard time engaging the prey even though they are portrayed near unworldly just five minutes earlier, Jason Vorhees level of unworldly.

There are so many strange occurrences, such as its convenient traps, sudden manifestation of characters from thin air and steroid induced change for the protagonist. I understand it wants to display the incomprehensible nature of human and how a devastating event could change people, but the execution is all over the place. Whatever message it wants to convey would get lost if audiences struggle to digest the absurd plot devices.

It has a good concept to begin, but ultimately the poor execution baffles audience in the wrong way.