A group of friends decide to go on a camping trip. Upon arrival, they find out the camp grounds are closed, so they go on a hike instead. Their hike was poorly planned, and they end up hiking back to the car after dark. The friends soon realize there is something in the woods. It is some kind of predator they have never seen, and it will stop at nothing to hunt them all. The friends get chased to a cabin where they find other survivors. The group must band together in order to keep the creature at bay and find a way to escape.

This movie was fun and gory, as most monster movies should be, but it was all painfully predictable. I forced my husband to watch this film with me, and I found myself on multiple occasions looking at him and saying, “I bet this is about to happen,” only to have that exact thing happen two seconds later. To be fair, I watch a lot of horror movies so I can usually predict what is about to happen even with the more unique movies, but this one was one big monster movie stereotype. It made it very simple to determine where the storyline was going to go. Looking back, I believe there was only one scene in the movie that actually surprised me.

Even the characters in the film were stereotypes. You have the nice smart girl, the slutty girl, the jock, the boy next door, the gay friend (a more recent horror movie stereotype), and the jerk that you can’t wait to watch die. The acting was surprisingly good considering it is a monster horror movie. This made up for the lackluster character stereotypes, at least a little bit. There wasn’t a single performance I felt was done poorly, but there wasn’t necessarily a standout performance either. I think a majority of my issues with the characters had to do with the writing and directing, as opposed to the acting.

When it comes to the creature itself, I loved the practical effects. I know this is something I rave about in almost any movie that uses practical effects, but I believe it is a dying art that needs to be appreciated. You can tell the creature is a person with masks and prosthetics, but the only area you can truly tell it is a person is in the arms. The look of the monster was very stylish and cool, which made it enjoyable. The only thing about the creature that really bothered me was that the film never explained what it is.

Just like the use of practical effects, I am also a stickler about plot holes. There are many times during the film where they make a point of saying at least one character had gone to this area for years (and clearly never encountered the monster), and someone obviously lived in the cabin they find before this monster came around. So where did the monster come from? They do make a point of saying the forest area is closed, and at one point one of the characters finds a Marine Corps backpack. This is possibly a hint that the creature is part of some military experiment, but they never bring it up again. I wish they had made it more explicit. Is the creature a military experiment gone wrong, is it an alien, or is it a forest protector awakened because of deforestation? I will never know, and it kills me.

This film is predictable, stereotypical, and has some plot holes that drove me nuts. Despite these shortcomings, the acting, practical effects, and healthy amount of gore still make the film fun to watch. Don’t watch this movie if you are looking for a unique horror movie that surprises you at every turn. This is more the kind of horror movie you watch when you are in the mood for a mindless blood-fest with a monster hunting down some idiot co-eds. Enjoy it for what it is, but don’t expect it to blow your mind.

OVERALL RATING: 5/10