Director: Jake Robinson
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Trying to figure out what happened, a group of online vloggers documenting their trip in the woods hunting for the truth about their missing friend find the cause to be a mythical creature that had caused his disappearance to now be hunting them and must get out of the woods alive.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable genre effort. One of the better features here is the rather impressive setup that showcases the group out in the woods and how they got there. The initial video of the interrupted livestream showing the vlogger getting out into the woods and being attacked is genuinely chilling and suspenseful, especially with the buffering happening at the perfect time to ruin the opportunity to see anything clearly. This spurns on the necessary investigation into what's happening that leads to the introduction of the team and their various quirks as the more time they spend out in the woods the more this all gets highlighted involving personal squabbles that were bubbling under the surface to hidden secrets that are brought about.
That all provides the kind of thrilling action as it all plays out with the creature taking its powers to the forefront. The ideas here, where the sense of panic and confusion of being alone in the woods with faulty equipment and the oncoming sense of doom once the strange interactions take place, start in nicely with the effects of the situation turning everyone against each other to the point of not noticing what’s going on with the creature attacks. This leads to the frenetic finale where the constant interactions with the newly-possessed victims turning on everyone else which leads to some frenetic sequences alongside the race to get to safety that only leads to them running into more of the creatures and the main beast at the end with some solid gore thrown in. these here are what hold the film up overall.
There are some slight drawbacks that can be had with this one. The biggest issue here is the drastic introduction to everything that really gives us no time to breathe or get acclimated to anything. Rather than give us a short spiel about his career working on the channel or what's going on, the use of the original broadcast footage as a cold open without a lot of context causes this to start off rather quickly thinking that this is the purpose of the film before switching over to the search for this missing person. This change doesn't affect the film too much but it does stand out for a wasted block at the beginning of the film already barely an hour long. That gets highlighted with the only other factor being the low-budget limitations placed here which again don't ruin the film but do stand out slightly.
Overview: ***.5/5
An incredibly fun found-footage creature feature that has some drawbacks to hold it back, there's not a whole lot to bring this one down while the majority of the positive points here keep this one going. Those who appreciate this kind of indie creature feature or are devout found-footage apologists would be the ones to like this the most while most others who don't enjoy these elements should heed caution.
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