Director: Ryan Glover
Year: 2026
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving at a remote outcrop, a team of geologists attempting to study a strange phenomenon in the area gets to work going through the motions of looking into the rocks when they discover a strange quality within that turns the experience into a nightmare and sets out to stop it from continuing.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid and likable enough genre effort. Among the better factors to be had here is based on the seemingly innocuous yet rather enjoyable setup that allows this to go for a different spin than expected. The initial setup, starting off with the arrival at the strange rock formation and the starting path to discover what is actually occurring around them and slowly come under the influence of this strange force in the middle of the desert that slowly starts to affect their work, is what allows this to be somewhat enjoyable. Going through the initial stages of the discovery process and the kind of work that goes on in the middle of nowhere, especially when the strange incidents start happening around the outskirts of the story, gives this a great touch when the incidents start occurring.
Those encounters here are quite a lot of fun, focused on the rocks in question starting to hum at an odd tone, and then we notice that the individual around them is then forced into killing themselves with whatever’s around. The forced suicide of the situation is somewhat shocking, with many of the sequences coming out of nowhere and just turning into a gruesome spectacle, such as the first incident when the victim breaks open a car door and then slices their throat open on the broken glass and bleeds out onto the ground around them. That gets ramped up in the finale, where the survivors manage to uncover the truth about what they’ve been studying and the aeons-old nature of the lament in their care, turning this into a true bit of cosmic horror dread when this gets brought to the forefront, providing the film with a lot to like.
There isn’t much to dislike here, but it does have a few small issues. The biggest drawback to this one centers around the sluggish and severely draining tempo that takes this a while to get going. The series of early storyline points, from the couple trying to get their work done while trying to maintain an increasingly-strained romantic relationship, the inability to deal with their interns trying to work past their obvious ineptness in the situation, and the constant fear of what their discovery could mean, work to provide plenty of immensely effective points building up the grand reveal of what’s going on. However, to do that, it relies on numerous scenes of them just standing around talking about things more than anything, and the pace can feel like a slog at times as a result, and by making it also feel longer than it should be, ending up holding this back slightly.
Overview: ****/5
A solid enough, if slightly problematic, slow-burn genre effort, there’s a lot more to like here than expected, and it manages to be quite enjoyable for what it is, even though there are some issues that will be a turn-off for some. Give this a shot if you’re intrigued by this kind of style or approach, or if you’re curious about it, while most others out there should heed caution with it.
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