Director: Preston DeFrancis
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Attending a retreat with friends, a troubled woman finds that the horror film reenactment in the woods they've signed up for is the real thing when a group of psychopaths start killing them for real and must try to help overcome their own problematic pasts to get the others away alive.
Review:
This was quite an enjoyable and original take on the genre. Among the most enjoyable aspects here is the film's central premise where it lets the game play itself out. Taking the real-life issue of the popularity of survival games and escape rooms to a rather enjoyable slasher concept is a wholly unique idea which is seen played out in the storyline for the sleepover game they partake in of having to escape the crazy people said to be running through the woods. Relying on clues to lead them to their next location or the items in their possession at the start of the game, this one offers up the kind of unique game setup which really brings in the fun.
As the game carries on and they start to become aware of what's going on around them with their ability to understand the slasher setpieces around them, the premise becomes a lot more fun and energetic with the discovery of the body in the tree, the series of scenes that bring about the realization it was actually happening for real when they come across the crazed psycho running loose in the woods and the group emerging out of the woods to announce their intentions with the savage killing of the other members of the group in pretty brutal manners which injects some much needed energy into the film. Alongside the nice body-count and fun gore, these hold it up over it's troublesome areas.
Frankly, the biggest obstacle to overcome here is the absolutely ridiculous storyline twist here of involving the girls' drug-user ex-boyfriend in the proceedings when he wasn't necessary at all. The fact that this brings up that plotpoint in the first place when it wasn't even mentioned beforehand makes no sense and only serves to distract this from the killers' motivations since it hampers the amount of on-screen stalking that occurs. The other big problem to be had with the final twist involved in enhancing a contrived and utterly headache inducing point that makes everything that happened completely moot and doesn't serve the film at all at the worst possible time.
The last big problem to overcome with this one is the wholesale finale where it has several big issues. Not only does this one end up changing around the entire structure of the film but this one also introduces the most overbearingly whiny and pathetic excuses for a killer's motivation possible which severely undermines the effectiveness of the entire premise with how ridiculous the entire setup is. The killer becomes the most irritating, annoying individual ever possible with that resolution, and despite the fantastic confrontation it's still troublesome because of that. These here are what hold it back overall.
Overview: **1/2/5
While it does manage to stay somewhat enjoyable in the long-run, the long-term enjoyment here is somewhat undone by the final half which is what really drops this one overall. Give this a chance if you're into these meta-heavy modern horror films or find this kind of thing enjoyable while those that are turned off by it's flaws should overall heed caution.
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