Director: Andrew Sawyer
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Traveling together through the woods, a group of friends looking to get together for a special celebration find their trip has been crashed by a murderous snowman housing the spirit of a long-dead lumberjack from local lore haunting the area and must find the means of stopping his rampage.
Review:
This was a decent enough indie effort. Among the brighter aspects here is the series of starting plotlines brought up that provide a reason to care about the various figures in the area. Getting to see the couple out in the woods fulfilling the local legend before heading to the bachelorette party while also getting the exploits of the hikers going through the woods gets a generally fun setup. As this also includes the strong local legend of the killer snowman’s identity, this setup starts the film decently enough.
As well, there’s also the film’s rather solid stalking scenes of the snowman coming to life and carrying out its rampage. From the opening attack on the campers to the encounter by the lake chasing the victim through the woods and the big encounter later on where it confronts the series of victims still alive, this aspect all comes together quite nicely here providing cheesy encounters with a fun frenetic indie vibe to everything. Combined with the goofy gore and effects work on the snowman props that are frequently utilized, these here are the film’s positive points.
There are some big problems here that do hold this down. One of the biggest issues here is a pronounced and quite dull period where this is so focused on building up the numerous storylines that there’s very little action. The amount of focus on the storylines here involving the couples hiking around the woods discussing their relationships or just goofing around with their friends that there’s barely any kind of action for quite a while. It’s halfway through the film that anything resembling genre action is somewhat troubling.
Also part of that reasoning is the other big flaw here in the use of completely banal subplots designed solely for generating bodies later on. The conspiracy theorist and the disinterested police officer are the biggest culprits, although there are plenty of additional scenes involving the lives of the various groups around the woods which all end up being pointless elements to continue the running length. The last issue here is the rampant and ever-present low-budget origins which drop from the screen every chance possible which is all that holds this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
A generally cheesy indie effort that has some issues, there’s enough going on with this one to be fun for what it is although this one’s drawbacks keep it squarely at that level. This is pretty much relegated to those who enjoy this kind of genre fare or don’t mind the issues on display here while most others who are not into the style or approach of this one should outright avoid it.
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