Director: Nicholas Winter
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Heading home from a bachelorette party, sisters leave early to get a jump on their upcoming plans only to get stranded in the middle of nowhere with car troubles and no way to call for help, and while waiting on a potential plan manage to find the area home to a vicious threat hunting them.
Review:
This was a serviceable at best genre effort without much else going for it. The whole thing here works nicely on the central setup, which has enough going for it to be a worthwhile premise. The idea of the sisters heading home from their friends and the rest of the bridal party shenanigans at play only to wind up stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to contact help with faded communication tools, and no one else on the road to flag down with the locals scared away from going there. It creates an effectively eerie setup full of dread and suspense where the unfamiliarity of the location, lack of help from anyone else around them, and the impending idea of being watched the longer they’re there creates a fantastic touch when it becomes apparent the creature is real and hunting them with the final third being some decent moments involving the shadowy creature taking them out in the darkened area. It all comes off decently enough to be likable overall.
There are some big issues with this one. The biggest drawback here is the highly underwhelming and draining pace that completely leaves this one so lethargic and dull, it’s not that immersive in the slightest. The antics at the bachelorette party and the group splitting up are fine enough, but the exploits of them being stranded in the side of the road are nothing more than just endless conversations about their strained relationship that’s come about due to the burgeoning situation they find themselves in that helps to add an emotional relevance to everything but also makes this one so lacking in action it’s hard to credit the first act with being a genuine genre effort. That’s on top of the fact that the second half takes place out in the woods, which is so dark and nearly impossible to make out what anything is or what the creature looks like, that it gives off an unintended cheap feeling that isn’t all that enjoyable. Coupled with a lame ending coda, it has some big issues.
Overview: *.5/5
A watchable enough if heavily flawed creature feature, there’s enough here to not be a worthless watch, yet way too many flaws present here to be of much worth elsewhere. Those with an interest in this particular style or are curious about it will have the most to like here while most others out there might want to heed caution here.
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