Mercy Falls

The movie starts off with a sniff of a forest survival horror movie which there are quite a few out there these days.

They can go well and still be cheaply done but this one was good until you see the war scenes which looked so cheap and nasty that it looked as if they were taken from another movie and put into this one.

Then you get the 'yes let's have a stranger hiking with us and we know nothing about her', okay why do script writers treat their audience as if they are thick?

This would never happen in real life, come on stop treating your audience like they are thick.

Other than that the movie had some good scenes in it and the acting wasn't bad.

I am giving it a four and that was a struggle.

Anyone remember the BBC "Merlin" series with Colin Morgan? Well, this is really just like an updated version of one of his adventures, only without the costumes, charm or dragons! We start with some lovely drone footage of the treetops before being introduced to "Rhona" (Lauren Lyle) who has assembled four of her friends to hike twenty-odd miles into the wilderness to find a remote cabin that she has inherited from her long-time estranged father. They haven't a clue, but luckily "Carla" (Nicolette McKeown - who reminded me a lot of Rebecca Ferguson) is on hand and she offers to guide them on their quest. It turns out, though, that "Carla" has quite a psychologically malevolent streak and that "Rhona" and her mates are all rather fickle, shallow types - except, perhaps, "Scott" (James Watterson). What now ensues gets gradually more silly as we discover there is precious little that's likeable about any of these people before a denouement that says very little about the standard of high-end British military training. The audio work is effective, but the rest of this is unremarkable fayre that will keep until it's on the television around Halloween.

This film has potential but is held short of the finish line by its middling plot and flimsy dialogue. However, the movie is visually stunning with beautiful sweeping shots of the Scottish wilderness and some very appealing shots in various scenes, the cinematography is worth a nod. Mercy Falls relies on the trope characters upon which the genre was built. And the cast work wonders to make these cliche characters work and feel believable and likable in the face of some truly poor writing. Some characters come over better than others - eg lead Lauren Lyle's performance as uninteresting protagonist, Rhona, comes over unenthusiastic aside from key moments- but overall the cast should be proud of being the highlight of the film. Layla Kirk and Nicolette McKeown are particular stand outs. Kirk brings convincing life and (more importantly) enjoyability to an otherwise lazy trope character, Heather. McKeown steers the ship as a solid antagonist, her character, Carla's story has such great potential but is underutilised by the writer(s) in favor of something much less gripping or compelling. But nonetheless she digs deep for the movie's strongest feature and her charisma will almost have you rooting for Carla to succeed in her hunt.

There is not much positive to say about this film except it's location. The story, lacking. The reasoning is nonexistent. Terrible acting by everyone involved. The script is bad. I'm not sure why this has high ratings and listed as horror on Tubi because this is not horror. At most it is a contrived blah of an attempt at a thriller. I've liked most of the Tubi originals but this one just didn't do it for me. It's boring, honestly. I could not wait for it to end. It just wasn't a good movie, overall. I'm sure many will disagree. But, if you have time to kill and want something that will barely keep your attention, this is the film for you. A 3 is generous, honestly.

Every cliche you can imagine is present in this tired, derivative waste of time. There isn't much to recommend in this uninspired low budget pablum.

The story isn't terrible but you've seen it all countless times before.

The acting is amateurish in the extreme. You can't present something to an audience with this poor level of acting and expect to be taken seriously. If you are trying to create tension or chills you need better actors. There are no two ways about it.

The film isn't exciting, scary or suspenseful. It is a cheap not very cheerful filler.

In all conscience I can't recommend this.