Director: Teresa Sutherland
Year: 2023
Country: Portugal
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Hoping to overcome a personal tragedy, a woman treks into the wilderness under the guise of a new ranger's job which allows her to look into the past tragedy that has haunted her only to come face to face with the unwanted source of the hauntings and must battle her sanity to escape the area.
Review:
This was a decent enough if overall underwhelming genre effort. Among its few positive features here is the general sense of isolation and atmospherics that are present within here. A vast majority of the first half is spent in the confines of the forest and the wonderful use of atmospherics only enhances that with the idea of the forest being alive and toying with her which is somewhat unnerving. Enhanced incredibly well with the given backstory about her past history and the connection she has with the missing ranger friend that spurns her into going along with the trip, this gets the film off to a solid start as the motivation to get there offers quite an impressive factor to get to the surroundings around her. As it gradually dawns on her that the more she's around the forest the more she questions what she's seeing and believing, the madness that develops here as the psychological effects take centerstage manages to be the big crowning achievement in the film.
As this gives way to the further connection between the events taking place and the past encounter that initially drew her to the area, this starts to take a far greater and more atmospheric turn as the inability to determine what’s going on is a strong one. Taking the chance to incorporate a slew of psychological clues and disturbnances that take place to upset her, there’s a lot of unnerving work throughout here as the inability to distinguish from her past hallucinations, repressed memories, or having something legitimately taking place during the stay. As these lead to further revelations about everything and what’s really going on within the film, the truth being revealed the way it does is quite fun with how it comes together into a shocking mystery as to how it takes place which also utilizes the fine reveal for a lot to like here.
Other than this, though, there's not a whole lot to the film as a whole. So much of this is reliant on the idea of the creepiness of the woods and the unnatural setting that's really only a normal enough forest that there's not a whole lot of action to be had here. The main part of the film which is wholly enjoyable due to the effectiveness of this build-up about her growing uncertainty with regard to what happened to her yet this is all generally dull and uneventful with how it’s handled especially for those looking for something beyond just fleeting glimpses of shadows or objects in the distance. As a result, the focus on getting the type of chilling genre content usually featured here is kept to a minimum as the psychological leanings are far more featured which becomes a major stumbling block that holds this one back.
Overview: **/5
An underwhelming if still somewhat watchable genre effort, there are some likable factors here that is worthwhile enough to not make this a total miss although some of the flaws here are quite detrimental. Those who are forgiving of these factors or are appreciative of this style will have the most to like here while those who are turned off by these factors will want to heed caution with this one.
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