Another Kind

I can see why many people will dislike this movie. It's a bit slow if you're looking for action rather than atmosphere, many details are left unexplained, and what is explained comes way out of left field. But I felt the bizarre and unexplainable events only added to the creepy atmosphere of the cold wilderness. I actually found myself wishing the filmmakers had left even more to the imagination, as the underlying explanation seemed to cheapen the rest of the movie somewhat. I still found myself quite satisfied when the credits rolled, but I think a more ambiguous ending would have been a better fit and given this movie a more lasting feeling of horror.

So while not without its flaws, overall I felt it was a much more interesting movie than its current rating would suggest. It reminded me of YellowBrickRoad, another creepy and bizarre wilderness horror with widely divided opinions.

Just had to watch this because I'm hooked on survival-theme movies. Maybe I had passed it if I had noticed it was one of those movies with a "mystery" element. It's hard enough to do a decent survival movie without any extra themes and true enough, this movie might had been at least decent as a strict survival movie.

Everything starts promising enough. Two friends with their girlfriends leave a city for snow hiking in the forests. Soon enough however the mystery element comes to play and the movie fails instantly. There are several occasions where something irrational and not so subtle stuff happens. One of the guys is just constantly trying to convince the others that's not a big deal. Perhaps some hillbillies are playing pranks etc. and he succeeds every time! This is one of the major flaws in the movie and such a typical fail that it's very annoying. Nobody in their right mind would sleep comfortably and wait some new weird stuff to just happen in dark woods without giving it a second thought. Instead they would get back to their car as fast as possible even if it was only some hillbillies having fun at their expense. But no, they have to wait until parasites begin drilling into their skulls before they're convinced it's probably safer to get back home.

So why did we need the mystery element here? Probably the writer / director realized he didn't have any new ideas for a survival movie and thought he could get off the hook by adding the mystery element. Very few movies in the genre have anything new to add, but I still rather watch another unoriginal realistic movie than a stupid one that's not even funny (unlike The Core which is hilarious). If you find some guilty pleasure from survival movies, then there are much better options you might have not seen yet from The Poseidon Adventure to Open Water and 127 Hours and many more in between.

Released in 2013, "Another Kind" details events when four friends take a four-day snowshoeing hike in the Catskills and experience strange occurrences.

This is a micro-budget small film, reportedly only costing $120,000, but it's so competently made it comes across as a bigger movie. It basically takes "The Blair Witch Project" template and makes a better movie. The four actors are all convincing and the dialogue, which might seem to contain a little too much bickering, is fairly realistic (I've been on trips with couples who frequently argue, so I know it happens). The first half hour is pretty humdrum, but then the events and filmmaking magic take you into the story. I almost never get creeped-out during movies, but a few parts of "Another Kind" were seriously creepy. Unlike some mystery movies that keep everything a mystery at the end, "Another Kind" spells it out, which will be a turn-off to some and a good thing to others.

The film is short-and-sweet at 76 minutes and was shot in Catskill Mountains, New York, with the opening filmed in Brooklyn.

GRADE: B

***SPOILER ALERT*** (Don't read further if you haven't seen the movie)

The ending reveals that there's an extraterrestrial attack on earth, so how does this explain the eerie events that the hikers experience. Evidently, the aliens assigned to this particular sector were toying with the hikers, like a cat with a mouse. They were just having some good sport with these easily-conquered low-life humans.

Id honestly really enjoyed this film,&watched it tonight again on Hulu(&honestly also re-watching next on Hulu a Based on True Events/B.O.T.E. film called"Dark Mountain",also a shorter length film,that Id rate the same as well w/6,though wish a more of a 6.5 were possible to choose,though).

Itd been awhile since last watching the films.But,this film left me wishing that they really had a higher"Movie Budget",than just the roughly $120K,Because then they maybe could've had the chance to keep going past the ending,which even in itself,was also good!Even though it was a low budget movie,it doesn't seem like it is by having that tacky video look&quality to it.

They did a well chosen movie concept to do,along w/having some pretty good Actors,who played their character parts well,too!Its definitely like they ALL made the best of it w/what they had to work with!IMHO,they pull it off w/taking advantage of using what they can,&w/the various elements to let your mind also contribute,w/your imagination working w/the movie,per say.Rather than trying to use up the budget$$ to try"amping it up"in some way.Which Im guessing like other low budgets,whod ended up butchering their flick to where the quality pays the price making literally a"B-Minus Movie",&a badly executed movie!

Which is altogether why I also wish there were also a way I could've rated up abit w/choosing more like 6.5 Stars and wish there were more to the movie in the ending,but it was still a good ending &movie for what it is altogether...Although this is my personal opinion,&know everyones is different :)

Acting was a bit poor, but a creepy atmosphere made this film watchable