jonmccann

It starts off relatively intriguing, and for the majority of the 1st episode, which was based on a significant news event, it gives a little insight, but this quickly starts to unravel in episode 2 when the 'investigator' or 'documentarian' goes off on a save the world tangent, with no real purpose or necessity, except for their own over-dramatised ego.

There were elements of this show that I just found truly frustrating, but to be blunt, if you dont know anything about the dark web and murder for hire, you may find this insightful, but for the majority of those interested in true crime, the subject matter in this alleged documentary is nothing new nor informative.

Late to the party, simply because a work colleague dared me to watch this as homework, after spending an afternoon procrastinating rather than working! To clarify, I am not a horror movie fan, and have very specific labels for horror - paranormal horror, psychological horror, old school horror etc!

I most certainly have this as psychological horror, it is to me the same style as Saw, as in it is written to build and test the boundaries of your mind and where and when you scare - it is different to me than paranormal horror, which are films like paranormal activity, or the ring, specifically designed to challenge your thoughts on ghosts from the outset, and hit a scare nerve intermittently, so that you struggle to forget!

I felt it necessary to clear the above up, just so you understand my rationale for my review - basically I thought this was really rubbish, I practically skipped and danced through this, waiting for something to happen - BUT that's the point isn't it?! I saw this on a sunny Sunday afternoon, in my living room with a cup of coffee, it didn't even really entertain me, but it wouldn't, because this film was never designed to be watched at home in those circumstances, that is the point of it, your best viewing of this film would be in Delamere* Forest on a cold wintry night, with just a tent, torch and maybe a video camera but nothing else, save for food and drink, then watching it would likely have scared the bee Jesus out of me and that's why people in my opinion, including myself, struggle to understand how other's can rate it soo highly, because context is everything for this type of movie.

There is no point me complaining about aspects of the film, because it was shot purposefully the way it was, with the hope true fans of the genre would watch it as intended and get it, it is for cult horror fans only. I do get, watching this in a dark cinema probably did it more justice, but sadly it's not my thing and my rating reflects this and the fact it simply relies on external factors to bring it too life!

*Other forests are available.

I was really gobsmacked reading the reviews for this series, also a little suspicious, they are all very similarly headed and content, but maybe I just didn't want to like it and cannot understand why I seem to be the only one!

Why, well, I just found it rather silly, far fetched, poorly written, badly acted and just very drawn out with very little substance. It is the kind of series that had we not been in lockdown, this would not even have been watched in my opinion, it was made in a short space of time to quech audience thirst.

I could easily have condensed this show into a 2 part it was lacking such originality and idea that much. I also see many 'raving' about the ending, again, I thought it was just silly and bizarre, and felt like it was just an easy way to conclude the series.

Overall, I struggled to get into the show because I just didn't like any of the characters, the layering in my opinion was not existent, and generally I just didn't engage from the first episode.

All that said, maybe you should make your own mind up, as I do seem to be the minority on this one!