This was a film that I got the chance to see thanks to Andrea from AMcK PR. There was a grouping of horror films that were sent over for October and this one I saw was a 2024 release. I like to support independent cinema when I can. Knowing that this qualified for my end of year list was partially why it was selected as well. I did come into this one blind.
Synopsis: a group of friends at a remote lakeside cabin find themselves in a deadly nightmare when trail cameras on the property reveal they are surrounded by more than just Mother Nature.
We start this with Mark Wallace (James David West) coming to the cabin in the synopsis. He is with Carson Hayes (Brandan Bald). They're met by the caretaker, Al Travis (Will Waldron). He lives about a mile away. They're joined by Mark's younger brother, Dan (Kyle Rankin). He brings his girlfriend Shay Landers (Liz Atwater). The two just got engaged as well. She also brought her friend, Laurie Peters (Meg Barlowe). What I'll say about her is that she is odd.
Something to include here is that Mark works for a company as a surveyor. This is a partial business trip as there is an opportunity where they might be able to extract resources. I get the idea that Dan isn't a fan and his fiancée is against what he does. Laurie joins him on a walk where she seems like she might be oddly flirting.
Things get weird when they return to their cabin. Both vehicles are missing with tracks going into the water. Mark goes inside to call the police, but they cannot hear him. This forces Mark to then go to Al's cabin. He's nowhere to be found. They do find his grandson, Grady (Austin Copps), who is spouting about disrupting something that lives out here. This gets even spookier with what they find on the trail cameras. Carson can download the images and there is something odd. It looks to be a person that is wearing a deer skull on its head. This forces them to seek out more of the cameras, download the images and then see if they can figure out what is stalking them. There are also these weird calls that they cannot explain.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. We have a simple story here to strand our characters, then we get a creature feature of sorts with it stalking the woods around this cabin and group of friends. This does play with the idea that you can't trust the people around you. It is amplified by characters going off by themselves. There are also odd things that happen that they cannot explain, making things even tenser. I'm not going to spoil what the reveal is about what is in the woods, but this is an entity that we've seen more of lately.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, this film does good things. I do like stranding a group of characters in the middle of the woods. They have this cabin. It is a long way to get back to the city. Then you knock out the phones and they don't get cell service. This is a classic idea to help build the atmosphere. What is also good here is that we don't know who is real and who is whatever is stalking them. They don't know Grady and he just acts odd, so that made me distrust him. We also have characters who go off by themselves. We don't know who changed and who is actually themselves. This does add elements that are solid for me.
The biggest issue here though is that this is boring. I hate to knock the film down, but it took time to get me hooked. It does get intriguing, but the pacing just meanders. This runs under 90 minutes, which is a bad sign. I'm not sure if it is just a me issue or if I couldn't connect with the characters. I knew who everyone was, but I just never worried about what was happening to them. I'm just thinking that things weren't developed well enough and we get more of an information dump at the end.
Let me then shift over to the rest of the filmmaking. The look of the entity is solid. We get this sign at one point of the movie that reveals what it is. It made sense, but since it never caught my attention, it didn't have the pull either. I'd say that the effects we got aside from that were fine. The deaths happen off screen. This is partially due to us not knowing who is real or who is being mimicked. The bit of blood I saw though was decent. I just wanted more overall.
I'll then finish out with acting. I don't think anyone here is bad. West works as our lead character. The issue I have is that he's not likable. They double down with that at the end. He's a bit of a jerk. I'll credit West for that, but I'm not sure why he would be the lead character then. Rankin is fine as the younger brother. Bald works in his role. He does the research and seems the most levelheaded. He just doesn't get a lot to work with. Atwater and Barlowe were annoying to me. I think that is more with the writing and the situations they were put in. Copps, Waldron and Micah Oser work for what they were given as well. We also get creepy people that are haunting the woods. They had a good look about them.
In conclusion, this one has good parts. The issue is that it is using a spirit we've seen more of lately and isn't doing enough to set itself apart. I do think that this is done well enough. The biggest issue there is not just building tension or developing that concern for the characters. The acting was fine. I do think my problem is more with how they're written. Unfortunately, not one that I can recommend, just because it doesn't do enough to stand out.
My Rating: 4 out of 10.
