Director: Nick Gregorio
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Science Fiction/Thriller
Plot:
Attempting to get out of the house, a group of friends decides to hang out together at a remote cabin in the woods to reconnect and recharge, but when they notice something strange has happened to one of them the others set out to find the cause leading them into a darker conspiracy than they imagined.
Review:
This was a pretty decent genre effort but has some issues. What it gets right includes the atmosphere of the setup and the surrounding woods, managing to get the kind of creepiness involving the complete lack of audience involvement in the woods or the complete paranoia that develops between the group being in the area alone. Once the infection begins and it starts to spread throughout the friends, there's a lot to like with the way the group descends into mental breakdowns and trust issues that come to the forefront with the distrust that shows up involving them completely unaware of what's going on features some likable factors. As well, with the practical effects going on around at a cheap level that is held up by the fair use of them throughout the last part of the film, these manage to hold it up quite nicely.
There are some issues to be had here. The biggest drawback is the films' rather bland setup that feels like padding even on this excessively short running time, winding through completely unnecessary elements including the meet-up at the cabin or the search through the woods trying to find what happened to their infected friend. There's also the fact that the highly underwhelming setup involving the group getting back together doesn't do that much towards making the horror of the finale all that impressive since the film is based on the threat of strange character behaviors highlighting the infection spreading. Having that be the main source of the tension fails somewhat when it's hard to know how to recognize it to begin with since it's just banal catch-up and useless padding to stretch the running time out, being the main drawbacks overall for this one.
Overview: **.5/5
An enjoyable enough genre effort that manages to fall short even with its stunted pacing and underwhelming story, this one is likable enough but is basically all that holds it back. Give it a look if you're a fan of the style or genre but most others out there who aren't into either of those factors should heed extreme caution if not outright avoid.
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