Director: Carl Sundström
Year: 2022
Country: Sweden
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Following a woman’s disappearance, a team of freelance journalists gather together and head out into the woods to learn more about the mysterious incident, but when they encounter the monstrous force at the heart of the mystery are forced to get out of the woods alive however they can.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid genre effort. One of its better elements is the somewhat engaging main setup that serves as a launching point for their investigation after it’s introduced in a fun manner. With the mother being recovered but left in an unnatural state and the child having disappeared without a trace, all attempts at gaining information from the authorities being stymied by run-arounds with red tape, and a bizarre encounter with the ex-boyfriend that leaves more questions than answers, these events are brought together pretty well into a serviceable enough setup. That they’re left with no other recourse upon being forced to finish their quest and look for the answers as to what really happened fits rather well with this early build-up and the motivations for finishing that it provides.
As this gets established, the film turns into a more traditional genre effort once they arrive in the woods and everything starts to turn more ominous and chilling. Despite early signs that something is there with the occult symbols on the rocks and strange noises being heard in the impenetrable darkness even with high-end camera equipment, this one becomes quite fun once they reveal the source of the threat through a series of highly impressive elements that provides a few suspenseful points to bring about the chilling finale in the remote house in the woods. Descending into the basement and generating enough action to be highly worthwhile and fun, this comes together enough to make for a likable enough genre effort.
There are some issues that hold this one down. Among the biggest issues here is the rather unnecessary way this one tries to be both a found-footage effort and a mockumentary retelling of the subject. The first half here basically offering up a mockumentary about the initial incident, the subsequent disappearance and the series of stumbling blocks into learning the truth sets this up as an intriguing enough mystery and would’ve been a fine way to work this throughout, but the constant inclusions of the found-footage trappings in the second half are undeniably off-putting. Stopping the film cold for cut-backs to the crew being interviewed or filling in gaps in the story which kill a lot of the momentum dead at the worst possible moment.
The other issue here is that, despite the second half finally getting a chance to do some genuinely creepy elements with the group finding the cabin and what lies within, that’s still in the later half of the film where it’s far too long until something happens. It goes way too long until we get a glimpse of something in the woods with the focus on their investigation roadblocks and the means of going out into the woods, but even with that, there’s a lot of time spent on the group hiking and bickering about how their search needs to go on or how lost they are that it’s far too late in this before we get a truly definitive look at something which doesn’t end up getting much of a payoff anyway. All told, these factors manage to bring this one down.
Overview: ***/5
An enjoyable enough if flawed Swedish found-footage effort, that the positives here are enough to bring this into the watchable phase of the genre as the few flaws here do come off damaging enough as they are. Give this a look if you’re intrigued by the concept or a fan of found-footage/mockumentaries in general, while those who aren’t into the style or approach should heed caution.
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