Director: Howard J. Ford
Year: 2025
Country: Denmark/United Kingdom/Thailand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Cannibals
Plot:
Heading on a trip together, a group of British tourists vacationing in the Thai jungle find themselves on the wrong river, which takes them to a section of the country inhabited by vicious, bloodthirsty cannibals killing all who come into the area, and they must find a way to get away from them.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent enough genre effort. One of the finer points with this one is the simplistic and uncomplicated storyline that provides this with a lot of solid action throughout. Starting this off with the series of interactions along the river as they begin their sightseeing quest, moving though the jungle and making everything that much more scenic and enjoyable before the eventual turn, gives this a strong start with the group exploring the jungles of Thailand in fine form while also managing to give enough of an idea about their characterizations on the trip. With this in play early on, the various sights and sounds of the group canoeing through the jungle and being told about the existence of the cannibal tribe and their background become a prominent part of this moving forward.
That comes into play with the series of immensely fun and brutal confrontations involving the group being hunted down and attacked by the tribe in the jungle. Focusing on the inability to spot where they are due to the constant camouflage and familiarity with the ambush spots inside the jungle, locating the group early on and using this to launch surprise attacks, the fact that they’re made aware of the tribe from early on is a strong feat that manages to provide plenty of strong attacks. Not just content to use their tools and weaponry, but also lengthy, involved chases through the twisting layout of the jungle and hand-to-hand fighting to mix everything up as well, giving this a lot of solid gore in the kills and other wounds. These all come together to give this one a lot to like.
There are some slight drawbacks to this one. The biggest issue here is the rather difficult first half that tends to dwell on the group’s exploits, who are immensely unlikable and hard to care about. The group spends the majority of the time either going through some obnoxious banter, trying to partake in a cute form of flirting with each other, with the trip as an excuse to bed each other secretly, or just downplaying the severity of the cannibals, so it’s difficult to care about what’s going on. As well, that highlights the strikingly alarming issue where the group never treats the cannibals as truly dangerous as they deserve to be, as the idea of the government being aware of such dangerous forces openly without any kind of protection or deterrence makes for an unlikely story. These all give this some problematic factors.
Overview: ***.5/5
An enjoyable enough and generally fun genre effort, this has enough to like that there are plenty of likable elements here, even with the few flaws on display holding it back. Those with an interest in this approach, who aren’t bothered by the negative points, or are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
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