Director: Rob Schmidt
Year: 2003
Country: USA/Germany/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Getting stranded in the Virginia backwoods, a man and a group of campers slowly come to realize they're being hunted and killed one by one by a family of deranged cannibalistic killers and must find a way of stopping them and getting out of the woods alive.
Review:
This here was quite a fun and highly enjoyable effort. One of the film's better features here is the fact that there's a hugely enjoyable atmospheric touch provided by the forest setting that makes this one so much fun. This one really plays up the creepy and foreboding woods right from the outset here as the lush vegetation and dense tree lines really give this a really beautiful, majestic air that's quite chilling as well. It's a nearly perfect playground for a backwoods-set slasher like this as there's plenty to like about those moments, starting with the tense and rather thrilling house escape chase back into the woods once they've realized the family's there as they go into the woods and stumble upon the deserted car park which is another stellar series of encounters trying to get away.
A later attack in the forest as they attempt to get away and another highlight effort where they get trapped in a lookout tower and must fend off their assaults while the killers light the whole effort on fire and force them out into the treetops for a fine series of encounters and can battle back quite nicely. As well, there's the other really good encounter out on the road where they get ambushed along the roadside which leads to a highly enjoyable brawl where she gets abducted as well as the one rather brutal kill that sets up the finale here as the attempt to reclaim her features a slew of high-end action brawling around their compound leading to the final confrontation in the burning house which is rather exciting as well as adding in some brutal kills along the way.
This is also helped rather nicely by the opening walk-through of their abandoned house which gives this a creepy, chilling vibe here with the scattered remnants of their collected items, broken-up belongings, and scattered human remains stuck littering the grounds and gives this such a terrifying tone right at the beginning to really make for a dark, brutal slasher. Coupled with the nice gory kills and some imposing villains, there's a lot to really like here as this one has only a single detrimental element bout it. This one is really only hurt by one small fact in that there's a huge missed opportunity in having the group split up as early as they are which really creates an offbeat pace. Keeping the group so small and then killing off that many in the first stages causes such a long break between them that there are stretches without tension as they have to escape to keep the plot going. Likewise, these kills are all off-screen and then shown the aftermath afterward which is rather disappointing. This is the only real flaw of this one.
Overview: ****/5
Far better than it should be, this is a rather fun and enjoyable old-school slasher throwback that manages to keep itself quite likable even with a few minor drawbacks in place. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre effort, enjoy this era of mainstream genre fare, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here while most others might want to heed caution.
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