Director: Mark Polonia
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Trying To help their friend, a couple of guys decide to rent out a cabin in the woods to help him get over a bad break-up, but when they arrive at the cabin find themselves under attack by a powerful witch cursed to live in the area and must find a way to escape the deadly being.
Review:
This was a rather fun and enjoyable cheesy genre effort. Among the better features here is the strong setup that offers up the kind of workable setup that’s immensely fun overall. The initial setup of the witch haunting the woods and the folklore connected to it sets the film up rather well, connecting its presence to the type of backwoods folklore style of legend which is enhanced rather well by giving this a holiday spin with the practice of the titular ritual. By then offering this setup in conjunction with the friends arriving at the cabin where the witch was originally killed and coming into contact with her and her minion, this one comes together decently enough for this kind of film.
That serves the film nicely enough to become rather intriguing when the supernatural mayhem arrives. The releasing of the witch through the burning of the tree trunk that held her makes for a solid enough reason to get her free and the idea of her using her powers to ensure the pedestrian is under her influence with the manipulated tree vines sets this in motion rather nicely. Other scenes, including the use of the possessed vines to launch supernatural attacks on the cabin they’re staring at or to use the minion as a special attacker inside the building to offer up the kind of attacks that bring about the resurrected witch attacking them in a fun finale. Overall, these manage to be the best features to be had with this one.
There are a few slight issues to this one that hold it back. The main drawback with the film is the general lack of budget that usually comes with this particular type of feature as the majority of this one is taken aback by the inability to properly showcase anything. The flimsy witch mask and lack of gore here offer the kind of typical low-budget scenarios where the use of shaky camera work to hide everything makes it quite apparent that’s the case, and with no practical features here as everything is CGI helps to bring that together even further. The rushed finale and manner of finally defeating the witch don’t make much sense with how the film had been built up until then so it’s a bit underwhelming, but as these are expecting don’t hold it back too much.
Overview: ***.5/5
An incredibly enjoyable indie genre effort, there’s a lot to like here which manages to work rather nicely during this section which does hold it up over the few slight issues present. Those who appreciate this kind of indie fare, are undiscerning holiday horror fanatics, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like with this one while most others out there should heed caution.
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