XMOOR

Wilderness horror. Exmoor is a national park in south-west England, a place that I have visited & explored numerous times. Therefore I felt somewhat cheated by the fact that this was filmed in Northern Ireland. Two Americans (well actually non-American actors with unconvincing accents, especially the guy) go to Exmoor to film the elusive big black cat, but instead get duped into hunting for a sick serial killer known only as The Beast. Much of the running time involves shouting & screaming in the wood at night, gets pretty tedious. It does have a few shock moments but this film fails to impress, instantly forgettable.

I'm not sure why this doesn't have a higher rating on IMDb. I just saw this, and it was fun. It had a natural flow, and I liked the main character a lot. There was a twist at the end that was very unexpected. However, what happens to the bad guy was kinda silly, but it didn't negate the rest of the movie.

Melia Kreiling was very believable, and she seemed believable scared throughout her time in the forest. I think we'll see more films with her in the future.

I recommend this film. It's a solid, original thriller, and I'll watch it again. I gave this a 7-star rating.

But not really something that is phenomenal. Horror movies live and die with their characters (most times literally than metaphorically) and in this case, the characters are mostly nicely drawn. You might even care for them (or at least some of them) not to die. Unfortunately a few things come in the way (and I'm not talking about Death/Killer situations alone).

The things that might annoy you, are the decisions made. Bad decisions as they mostly only happen in horror movies, to move on and make the movie "interesting" or let things happen that could be easily avoided. Having said that though, I have seen far worse, so if you don't hang up too much on those things and don't mind the slow pace in the beginning, there is a couple of things to enjoy here

Bad dumb Tish! To be honest there were moments I was thinking X moor had some interesting ideas and was going somewhere, however it kind of felt a bit messy in the end and was a bit inconsistent. The lead role was entirely unconvincing and paled in comparison to other actors in minor roles and this proved a bit distracting, although the twisting and turning on the plot could not have helped plus the characters being all a bit on the silly side, then again we'd have no horror movies without characters acting inexplicably stupid. The movie also suffered from many dark scenes at one point which were simply difficult to make out. It did feel everything went on an inexplicable rush near the end and ambitious plot points were not developed fully. It did have its moments however it seems like more time was needed to think over and edit this movie. Has the guy from Agents of Shield in it tho. 3 points for creepy kid, 10000 points for unintentionally hilarious stunt involving a Jeep.

Directed and written by Luke Hyams, and starring Nick Blood, Mark Bonnar and Melia Kreilling. This 2014 Horror film suggests it was made on Exmoor (North Devon, UK) but do not be surprised to find that if you have been there you won't recognise much as it's pretty much filmed in Northern Ireland. The film has a reported budget of £1m and a runtime of 76mins. With a potential beast on the loose this film promised lots of thrills in the dark, which should be plenty enough to tantalise horror thirsty audiences.

This film sees some documentary makers, Georgia, and Matt, going into the woods to investigate the fabled beast of Exmoor that lives in the North Devon moor. The beast is supposed to be something akin to a wild cat, maybe a puma, a panther, or a lion. Either way there is a £25k reward being offered by a local newspaper for the beast. The pair of documentary makes meet a hunter who agrees to be their guide in the woods, he is eager to help because he believes the beast is hungry for human blood. They soon discover putrefying body parts stacked up and realise that it probably is not a beast that is responsible for the bloodshed and carnage. A struggle soon ensues as Georgia and Matt fight for their lives to make it free.

This film started off well but seemed to drop in standards as it advanced. I began to wonder if the screenplay started as an idea which was fleshed out during the shooting process. It was a dark enough film with bits and bobs of tension, but it did not fully have me gripped. It probably looked better than it played out. The acting was decent without ever been good, but I have to say that I never really bought into any of the characters. They were not really that loveable or enjoyable, the annoyed me at times - and of course they made bad decisions throughout the film. Yes, this is typical horror hunt and hunted film, so expect the stars to make lots of bad decisions which is how the tension is made. I liked that the film gave us the Reality vs Myth, showing that when there are rumours of a supernatural beast it is probably just some random guy. However, by the end of the film I was left wishing that there had of been a beast roaming around.

All in all, I can think of a lot of other films that do the same but a lot better. As such this is not a film that I'll be going back to anytime soon and I can't really rate it that highly at all. 4/10