'Feral' is an excellent example of a low budget horror movie done wrong. We've recently had some low budget gems in the horror genre (for example 'Starry Eyes'), but it's movies like this that make the genre take a step back, especially considering this is another 'college kids go to a remote cabin in the woods and die' kind of horror movie, which should've died after 'The Cabin In The Woods' proved that these sorts of horror movies have overstayed their welcome in cinema.
This all brings me to the question: why was this movie made?
I still ask myself that now having watched it but this movie shouldn't have been made at all, especially considering it has basically been made already. The Australian horror film 'Primal' came out in 2009 and has an almost identical plot to this movie. This wouldn't be as big of an issue as it is if that movie wasn't so godawful, and unfortunately 'Feral' is even worse in its execution.
Firstly, despite the plot being unoriginal and generic, it still had the potential to provide for an entertaining movie, but this film is sleep-inducingly dull. This is mostly due to the movie's terrible pacing, with characters being killed off 10 minutes into the movie (bearing in mind that there's only 6 of the college kids to begin with), meaning that the remaining 80 minutes goes by incredibly slowly as we wait for the remaining college kids to die. This is made worse due to the boring characters presented to us, who have no development, no personality and apparently no intelligence as they constantly make the dumbest decisions that no real human would ever make unless they'd been lobotomised.
The quality of the acting doesn't make the film worthwhile either. I had some expectations for the performances considering that Olivia Luccardi was playing one of the main characters (having given a solid performance in 'It Follows'), but even she gives a bad performance in this movie. Scout Taylor-Compton easily gives the best performance but that's hardly saying much considering the performances from her costars. The worst performance in this movie easily goes to Lew Temple as the movie's antagonist, who sleepwalks through his role with the most monotone delivery of every single line that he speaks. It's clear that he only starred in this borefest for his paycheck.
Taking into account that this is a horror movie as well, I might as well talk about how scary the film is: it isn't. There's absolutely no tension because of how dull the movie is, and the creatures themselves look like poor imitations of the creatures from 'The Descent' (go and watch that instead), but it's not like that matters anyway because the lighting is so bad that you'll barely see the creatures at all.
This movie was doomed from the start. An overdone concept with weak actors and a terrible director could have never made for a good movie, let alone a low budget horror movie like this. Just watch something else, because this movie is a complete waste of time.
