Director: Jose Altonaga
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: USA
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
After surviving a disastrous trip, a woman recounts the events to a police officer how she and her friends discovered a supposedly abandoned house in the woods on a hiking trip which contains the trapped spirit of a witch executed hundreds of years earlier and has now possessed one of the group for revenge.
Review:
This one was a pretty decent effort. One of the best parts of this one is the early setup involved here with the way this one puts the kids in the house and how it all unleashes. With the flashback recounting the narrative of everything that happened to the group, how they arrive at the house and handle their issues together while having the possession slowly unfurl in the background of all the drama has a nice suspenseful air to it. That this one features a nice unrecognized build-up with the manner of her possession in the eye-gags, her disappearances in the middle of the night or the sequence of the possessed individual maniacally digging in the ground to remove a strange box which all triggers thoughts of something going on that they’re not prepared for.
The film also manages to be quite enjoyable once it gets to focus on the rampaging figure taking out the group. With the build-up in place about the possessed figure amongst them, the scenes of the loner encountering the possessed in the woods or the confrontation that ends with a conjured rope-noose to kill the unwary victim offer up plenty to like of their encounters in the woods. The group encounters inside the house which results in fun slasher-style stalking sequences throughout has some enjoyable elements to it with the gruesome deaths involved, and the final half featuring the witch rampaging through society taking out the various interlopers with the case has some chilling elements with how they’re taken out. The finale in the police station is fine if slightly anticlimactic in what occurs here, but it’s enough to hold this one up overall.
The film does have a few issues throughout it. Among it’s more troubling areas is the generally unappealing cast that doesn’t make the first half all that exciting. From the absolutely useless amount of snarky comments on everyone that generates nothing of interest due to everyone not feeling like genuine friends to this strange inability to tell any of the women apart since they all have similar features while not having their names mentioned at all, there’s little about this which is interesting. As well, the film struggles mightily due to a weird plotline that turns away from the retelling of the woodland encounter to a police procedural with the investigations done starting at the hour mark which isn’t as interesting. With some of the low-budget setups here are quite obvious and distracting, these are what hold this one back.
Overview: **/5
While there are a few minor issues that strike up here which are more than upheld by the positives, there’s a nice enjoyable streak here that manages to make this one watchable if somewhat average overall. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of these indie-styled supernatural genre efforts or are curious about this kind of effort while those turned off by this style should heed caution.
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