Director: Edwin Scott Brown
Year: 1983
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Driving out to the wilderness, a group of friends runs into a camp worker while they wait for a spot to open and decide to hike out together, but when they notice their numbers are down they realize a deranged serial killer is stalking the woods and try to get out of the woods alive.
Review:
This one does have some half-way decent moments in when it tries. One of it’s best aspects is the fact that this one takes advantage of its forest setting like very few others gives it a great atmosphere. The forest setting is disorienting in nature, continually features areas that look identical to other areas they’ve already past, and in general have a creepy vibe to them allows for some great moments to come from there. The early scenes of the group hiking and complaining in the wilderness carries a nice vibe while clearly showing that they’re being watched as they pass through the gorgeous scenery and mountain locales on the way to camp. Ths filler scenes of the animals scurrying around in underbrush that could vaguely be close to the setting around them help to give this an even more pronounced feel of being out in the wilderness and has a lot to like overall
There's also a lot to like here when it uses that set-up to bring about the interactions with the killer. The first encounter striking the couple in the campground offers up some fantastic stalking scenes as the killer strikes out of the darkness of the woods, leading into a nice extended search through the woods the next morning to look for them only to find splattered blood left behind. Likewise, the scenes of the ranger tracking the teens through the woods have much to like about it slowly dawning on him what’s going on, and the finale is pretty good since it leaves with a big enigma and does something really clever with it. The only other part that works is that there are some good deaths as well, including a wicked decapitation, twisting the head completely around and breaking the neck and having the throat crushed with bare hands, making this one a pretty gory one at times. These here are the film's best qualities.
There isn't a whole lot of flaws in the film, but they are there. The main issue here is the fact that the killer is kept off-screen until a few shots at the end which is a wise idea since there's almost nothing about him that screams terrifying. The design is decent, and it's intended to look really great, but all it does is just look like a ridiculous plastic surgery gone wrong and is a lame attempt at being creepy. There's no way that it looks anything other than this, and is all too ludicrous to be anything other than unintentional hilarity. The overstuffed hands look even more ridiculous than the main design, furthering the idea that this one won't put any scares into anybody.
The last one has to deal with the motive of the killer. This is never spelled out, his back-story is a brief blurb that is never mentioned by or to anyone who comes into contact with them, and it makes him seem like too much of an enigma. Granted, there's a limit to what a killer should be like to maintain an aura of mystery, but this one was just too much mystery. Nothing is given as to why they're on the rampage, and it would've helped out the fear factor a little more. Along with a fairly healthy segment of time with a whole host of scenes showing the wildlife supposedly in the area that takes up an insane amount of time, it's watchable without too much going wrong for it.
Overview: ***/5
As there are a few good moments here and there that allow this one to be watchable at worst, but this is still a below-average slasher. Check it out for fans of the hardcore backwoods-slasher style, while those who aren't big on those or of slashers, in general, will find very little in here to get excited over.
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