Trying to help their friend, a woman invites her friend along on a trip with her boyfriend and his friends to a New Year's Eve party in the woods for a chance to get away, but when they realize that a curse has awakened a dangerous killer being in the woods must try to get away alive.
Generally, this was a highly enjoyable shot-on-video throwback. Among the better aspects of this one comes from the excessive care on display to pretend this one comes from that particular time period. Not only awash in the same color scheme with the hazy filter, washed-out look, and general atmosphere of the old-school scene but the overall approach is taken here with the setup of the wrap-around commercials and warnings completing the picture rather well. It's all a part of the storyline and setup featured here that makes this feel like a genuine homage visually and thematically to the time period. That is helped along nicely by the fun setup here which has a lot of fun set in place. The initial introduction of the spirit animal concept at the camp has a nice feel to it while the introduction of the curse affecting the area that brings the animals to life in a humanoid life-form offers a great overall setup to get this started. With the series of backstories here about the main groups' needs to venture out to the cabin and encounter the creature which offers some sympathetic turns for all involved here completing this picture, this part of the film has a lot to like about it. That leads into the film's other fine positive here with the utterly goofy and enjoyable attack scenes. The fact that the creature hops forms with a different plushy animal head appearing to each victim and delivering several solid one-liners foreshadowing their death makes each scene that much sillier and more enjoyable. The attacks also manage to feature hilariously old-school practical make-up to make-up for the goofy concept of the sequences being played out, and with the frenetic finale offering a lot of fun chases through the woods offering up some inventive genre gore give this a lot to like about it. There are some minor issues present. One of the biggest features here is the film's running time is unnecessarily dragged out by scenes and features not really needed here. The encounter in the woods with the being taking out the lost hikers with distorted dog-commands beings utilized to setup their deaths causes it to run way too long for a one-note joke, while other scenes involving the girls trying to get over the troubled boyfriend run past their usefulness once we become aware that something is hunting them. The obvious low-budget nature of this one might not also be tolerable for most who will be put off by these factors that give it a cheesy charm that can also lower this one.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Extreme Graphic Violence.
