Agreeing to take an odd assignment, a videographer joins a group to document a journey to the tomb of a woman whose story was adapted into a classic horror film, but they soon realize something unearthly is in the woods with them and must find a way to get out of the situation alive.
For the most part, this was a pretty entertaining effort. One of the more intriguing elements featured here is the way in which this goes into depth on the story from the original film. Having the knowledge of the film explained throughout here manages to serve ground this so that viewers not familiar with the original be caught up and not confused at all. This adds to the already-strong storyline where it blends the fictional with the realistic by portraying the original movie as what really happened and then adapting the new movie from these events. For the most part, the rest of the movie is pretty entertaining. Utilizing the documentary-style approach, the manner in which this sets up the fundamental rule of the genre is clearly at hand with the need to document the journey makes fine use of the medium. Being lost in the countryside and needing the light is a fine enough if cliche reason, yet the tactic still works here. The manner of recording the atmosphere of the wilderness as they get further away from their target is a solid resource and makes the woods that much creepier. As a large part of the film revolves them wandering around the woods lost, the atmosphere created through that process is quite impressive seeing the confusing layout and overall area of the woods. Helping this along is the nice action in the later half where after exploiting the weirdness of his behavior, this one features the lost and frustrated group wandering around before they eventually stumble onto the tomb by accident. As they start to devolve into bloodlust over being around the grave, the film really picks up the intensity and the supernatural actions that are featured here are quite chilling with everyone coming upon not only the deranged figure but also the possessed individuals gives this some rather nice thrills. This being the main action of the movie, it really drives up the stakes from the rest of the film as there was a nice atmosphere developed but not much else. As well, the guide's rather bizarre behavior manages to help ease the pacing of the first half, from casually drinking poison, carrying a wig around and bursting into made-up songs from an inconsequential piece of dialog. Adding some graphic gore to the mix, these add to the watchibility of the film even though it does suffer from a few minor flaws. The main issue is the bland pacing since the group is lost just wandering around the forest so there are long stretches with nothing much going on. There are quite a few stretches with the group wandering through the bushes, sitting in the car or just complaining about the bizarreness of how he's behaving before it dawns that nothing is happening otherwise. The other big issue here is associated with the horror elements. Since found-footage filmmaking relies on the stability of the individual shooting it, the footage becomes wild and frantic during the worst parts to do so. The final attack here is broken up by the inability to focus on what's going on, and it's only when the camera is knocked down that it focuses on the action. These issues are what knock this one down.
Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.
