Stranger in the Woods

Low budget attempt at a horror/ slasher drama.

Firstly, I am not going too hard on a movie that clearly has a small budget and made independently. That being said, this is poor by any standard.

The direction, the editing, the sound design, the acting, the script, the plot and cinematography is all poor. I can only imagine what someone like Sam Raimi would have done with something like this.

This is Holly Kenney's first stab at doing a screenplay and it shows. It doesn't help that she has decided to play the lead character herself.

There are strange scenes all over the place. The dog, who is the best actor in the film, disappears and reappears for little or no reason.

This movie is a low budget indie and I think it exceeded my expectations. Acting was decent, the cast was diverse.

Olivia's friends take her for a weekend getaway to the woods after she supposedly attempted suicide. Her friend/crush Sam's brother Clayton owns the cabin they rent and he lives in the adjacent one. Clayton is seemingly the "odd brother" in a Survival off the grid way.

Olivia's dog disappears and she soon suspects Clayton. The others try to let Olivia know she's being paranoid and kind of "crazy", especially after her suicide attempt. But Olivia insists she never tried to end her life and someone tried to murder her.

I'm not going to give away spoilers even if I think many fans of this genre could figure things out. My only real gripe is yet again in a horror/thriller, police are called yet never arrive. It's obvious at least an hour passes. But this isn't a problem unique to this film.

At an hour and 20 minutes I think this is an easy watch and it's actually quite on topic with a situation many women experience.

Decent indie, many females will relate.

The 48 awards this movie supposedly won are from non-existent film festivals. Basically, there are hundreds of festivals that exist in name only on blogs. Just submit your movie poster and be named winners. There are thousands of categories to possible.

I'm glad I didn't waste any time watching this movie. It has to be absolutely retched, since movie insiders had to write some over the top positive reviews.

Lousy uninspired acting, trite setting, typical unhinged woman whose friends don't believe her. At least for once the dog didn't end up butchered on the porch. I'm guessing it needed time away from the unhinged woman too.

This recipe feels really old: Traumatic event, friends trip to a cheap cabin in the woods. Main character is annoying right from the start. It's absurd someone would get involved to go on a trip with such character and binge drinking based on the initial premise. I literally couldn't wait for it to end. I watched it because MAX was recommending it constantly. Horrible acting, cheap repeated premise and slow in everything it does. No plot twists.. no nothing. Goofy characters, same-old tired premise no effort whatsoever. Refrain from wasting your time on this and go rewatch whatever's available on any of your streaming services.

The ending is the worst ending of a movie I've seen in a really long time! Here is right before the ending: She has a gun, sees the one trying to kill her is still alive, puts gun down to ring the police on a landline that probably isn't even working and then runs upstairs to get away from him leaving the gun behind! Enough said? Terrible movie.

I wasted 82 minutes of my life to watch this! It's terrible avoid avoid avoid!

I also had to write this and I never write reviews just so people know how terrible this movie was! Urgh!!!! Avoid it at all costs! Or watch it for a laugh! You might enjoy it!