Director: Olivier Pathonnaud
Year: 2017
Country: United Kingdom/France
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Agreeing to participate in a reality-show shoot, a man joins the crew to film his segment for the show but manage to find themselves stranded at a ruined castle in the wilderness, and the longer they stay there the more they come to believe something is living in the area with them and must get away alive.
Review:
This was a slightly disappointing but still enjoyable genre effort. What it does right is the general setup that manages to get the group stranded in the area and alone in the castle ruins. Setting up the pretense for a new reality show shoot to take place brings the team out into the wilderness for their challenges which explains why the team is together with the producer, cameraman, and performer all showing up out in the middle of the woods which is nothing original but serviceable at best. The exploits of them in the ruins where the constant screeching in the distance and eerie noises being heard nearby creates some intriguing atmosphere that builds nicely as this one goes along when matched alongside the struggle for adequate protection from the small fire they’ve built and the relative unknown situation they’ve now found themselves in.
That is where the film picks up some energy as the second half featuring the team trying to come to terms with the predicament and come face-to-face with the creatures. The difficulty and unfamiliarity of navigating the castle make for a couple of decent suspense scenes as the paranoia slowly starts to seep in that they’re not alone and that the game isn’t being featured here that take great advantage of the underground tunnels of the castle. The finale, featuring the confrontation with the crazed killer living alone at the castle features some enjoyable aspects here with the constant appearing out of nowhere to strike when they least expect it, some decent enough stalking that generates a couple of suspenseful moments and a decent enough resolution. These all hold the film up for the most part.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The main problem with this one is the general lack of interest or excitement generated here since it’s so reliant on running through the usual series of scenes you’d expect in this type of film. Rather than do anything unique or original, the reality-show premise involving the participants being asked to try out their worst fears to push themselves to the breaking point is tired and uninspired, much like the rather bland quality of the rest of the film featuring the group wandering around the darkened castle corridors without much happening. It’s way too dark to make out much of what happens anyway but with this one being so formulaic it’s hard to really make much of a difference. Coupled with the film’s low-budget origins that come through quite frequently and a lack of explanation for what the killer is doing at the castle based on his ceremonial rituals, these are what hold the film down overall.
Overview: **/5
With a decent enough setup and some fun moments here and there, this one's somewhat undone by the negative factors on display that end up keeping this one quite squarely in the decent-enough realm. Those who can appreciate the style or approach utilized here might have a lot more to like here although most will probably keep this one in that middle-of-the-road category.
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