Director: Brad Baruh
Year: 2018
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Applecart
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Traveling out to the woods, a family renting a cabin-in-the-woods to help heal a fallen family member find that the mysterious intruder they find in the woods is harboring far more demonic and deadly secrets than they expected and turns their weekend into a nightmarish struggle to survive.
Review:
This was a rather fun and overall enjoyable effort. One of the most impressive elements featured here is the way this one manages to weave together a truly gripping and somewhat creative storyline together. The central concept of the visit out to the remote cabin which is a dual-ended setup with the real-time layout of the trip and the concurrent TV-show presentation looking back over the incident in the past-tense. This is wholly unique and enjoyable with the entire concept taking a rather inventive series of twists and turns as this plays out but overall coming off with a stellar concept.
Once this dives into the more overt supernatural aspects of the storyline, this one has a lot of fun playing up the antics of the past. By turning into a rather fun mixture between supernatural entity, home invasion-styled slasher and a killer-in-the-woods style effort, this mix provides a wholly engaging and frantic ideas here. The fantastic early setup here, from the pre-credits attack on the couple in the woods to the startling first shot of the possessed going crazy in the dining room taking out the first members of the group and getting in some great action with several brawls to get them under control while the hysteria and freakouts are genuinely featured. Even employing the demonic body-hopping concept in fine form here with the scenes of the various possessed family members turning and contorting into vicious demon-like beings has a lot to like in that regard which makes this one of the best scenes in the film.
With that scene setting the stage for the terrific final half, that ratchets up the tension really nicely by turning the action into a fun series of setpieces not only around the cabin but also the surrounding woods. With the turned demonic beings hunting down and targeting the remaining members in several brief and somewhat enjoyable confrontations that are given far more weight once the big showdown occurs which manages to offers up a truly stellar finale with her going around confronting the various demonic beings which has a lot of great action and vicious gore on offer. Playing into the twist with the need for the TV show coverage and how that turned around on her that has a great final reveal full of fantastic practical effects that sell this incredibly well. Overall, these here are what make for a great time over it's few minor flaws.
Among the main problems to be had with this one is the overall confusing nature of the storyline on the first watch, as there's not real preparation here for the dual nature of what's going on. It's somewhat distracting to notice that the main storyline detailing the events of this family's encounter in the woods is sometimes interrupted by the true-crime story about the events which are over-the-top dramatization about her as if what's going on is common knowledge. The way it turns that setup into the full twist around gives this a kind of odd tone that really undermines the twist by giving it away from the beginning ruins a lot of what's going on. As well as the slightly abrupt running time that could've offered a bit more detailing the purpose of the group and what they're about, these here are all that hold this back.
Overview: **** 1/2/5
With plenty of absolutely fun work here not only in regards to the strong storyline but also getting in numerous quality elements with the general storyline anyway. Really give this one a chance if you're into these more enjoyable aspects of the genre or find this style of low-budget indie effort intriguing, while there aren't a whole lot out there that won't enjoy this.
Comments
Post a Comment