Director: Mike P. Nelson
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After his daughter’s disappearance, a man sets off in search of her and her missing friends and learns they got stranded in the woods where they encounter a society of backwoods hunters living by themselves and must try to get them back without running into the locals around the area.
Review:
This was a decent enough if highly flawed effort. The main factor that appeals, which is pretty much the only factor that works well here, is the opening setup that shows something happening in the woods around them. The series of traps and encounters with the group getting picked off by the various items left around bring about some rather enjoyable times here, especially once they realize the woods are crawling with the society members attempting to pick off the group one by one. There are some suspenseful encounters within here as the group is unaware of who's out there while also providing this one with tons of aftermath gore that's quite brutal and dark even without the on-screen kill shot. That's really all that works here.
There are some big problems with this one. One of the main issues is the generally overlong and unnecessary running time that doesn't warrant the excessive length. The setup here is the main issue, taking the two-pronged approach with his search for the missing group and then going into their full adventures in the town looking to go hiking before stumbling into the group. Switching back and forth between these two stories throughout the rest of the film stretches the film out far too much, especially with overlong courtroom sequences or plot points that aren’t required. So much of this one is unnecessary that it could’ve lost many of these extra scenes and storylines without affecting it.
Moreover, the film really doesn’t seem logically plotted about how the society operates and why it’s supposed to be a frightening experience. The take-off on a doomsday cult living out in the woods throwing plenty of traps out on the mountain that denote a secret society living out there which comes off as inherently stupid since it takes the fearful ability of the group out of the film just by being innocent hunters unaware of who they really are. The basic groundwork of the society is completely missing as to what they’re setting out to accomplish being out in the wilderness being out by themselves, which isn't even anywhere near as bad as the fact that the plot twist in the second half makes it out to be them as sympathetic and unwilling to hunt anyone in the first place.
The last negative to deal with here is a series of utterly unbelievable and mind-numbing decision-making that goes into this one. From failing to report anything about the strange behavior of the locals to the inane idea of failing to recognize they've killed someone and should report it to the authorities or not even realizing that they're being hunted in the first place after one of the groups is murdered. The whole idea of taking the offer to join their society only to then betray everything later on should've been seen coming from a mile away and sets up the utterly moronic finale which sets off a round of stupidity that ends this on a sour note, holding this down overall.
Overview: */5
Even if the complete disregard for the previously-established franchise is taken into account, there’s not a lot to like here which makes this one sorely disappointing and underwhelming for the most part. This is really only for the more adventurous modern genre fans who are willing to go with the changes and enjoy the film on that basis, but most others won’t have much to like with this one.
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