Director: Chris Nash
Year: 2024
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After a sacred locket is stolen, a resurrected serial killer is brought back to life and sets out patrolling the woods around the site killing everyone he comes across, and when his rampage brings him into the campground of a group of friends bringing him into contact with the group for his rampage.
Review:
This was an intriguing if overall problematic genre effort. The main factor to be had with this one is the inherent creativity of the setup that tends to focus on the killer more than the characters he’s stalking. The portrayal of the killer going through the daily routine of patrolling the woods after being revived and killing off anyone he finds only to then turn around and continue walking through the woods in search of the next victim is a novel and unique approach that partakes far more of a documentary approach to what goes on in the killer’s mindset before he stalks and kills his victims. This approach manages to highlight the creativity of the setup by being the main feature to focus on this aspect of everything tending to be related in small doses as the primary aspect here is in looking over how the killer approaches his duty and goes about stalking his target.
That is the other fun aspect of the film where it comes off incredibly well with a stellar collection of stalking and death scenes spread throughout. Opening on the stalking scene involving the killer taking out the lone hunter in the area and setting off into the woods, the idea of taking everything from his viewpoint and handling the stalking at the very beginning to get an idea of what’s going on, how the framing works, and the brutality about to be inflicted setting the stage for what’s to come later on. From the encounter at the campsite to the stalking at the lake and eventually coming across the person doing yoga that all manages to set up a frantic finale as there’s a great race to stop the rampaging killer around the old mill where it ends on a great touch including some great gore giving this plenty to like.
There are some big stumbling blocks with the film that keep it down. Among the main drawbacks here is the opposite of the creativity already mentioned as the whole idea of seeing things from the killer’s perspective is that it involves way too many scenes of the killer mindlessly wandering around the woods with the camera stuck in the same position as he journeys to the next encounter. The day-in-the-life diary-style approach here means that endless amounts of the running time is filled up with trampled dirt, leaves, and bushes with the occasional bird chirping in the background that becomes mind-numbingly dull when viewed alongside the same repetitive walking pattern and cadence of the killer going through the woods doing his duty.
The other side effect of all that manages to be the highlighted quality that makes slasher films so much fun is that it’s mainly about a group of people we as the audience like and come to root for surviving against the killer. As this one tends to feature a handful of behind-the-scenes arguments and conversations about things as the killer is in earshot to hear them being the only hints that we know something about them, it makes the characters feel far more bland and lifeless than they should without any development. By switching the point-of-view to the killer making his rounds through the woods and stumbling upon them incidentally, there’s less of a chance for us to get to know the group and it does affect the film somewhat with the approach taken here. Luckily, this is only in the first half as the second half does dispense with this somewhat so it’s not as big of an issue but it does hold this one down somewhat.
Overview: ***.5/5
An immensely intriguing experiment that mostly pays off, there’s a lot to like with this one that comes off far better than it should with some big drawbacks holding it down. Those who are fine with the flaws here, are curious about it, or are general fans of slasher fare will want to give it a shot while most others out there turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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