That quote right there is probably ten times more interesting than the movie itself sadly.. but that's not to say that there isn't things to like here because I did ultimately enjoy this movie just a tiny bit, however I definitely did not love it like I was hoping to do. This really could've been a whole lot better in my opinion but whether it be the slightly meh presentation of it all or just that it was really obvious where the story was going from the very first five minutes.. but the combination of all of it just made it a film that was slightly better than bad, not great but I wouldn't say it's horrible in any remarkable way either. The most shocking part about this entire movie for me was the fact that the very first place it started streaming was on Tubi, which I didn't expect but I suppose it does make sense due to the budget and such, but I was surprised to find it on my recommendations on there randomly.
There's not exactly all that much noteworthy about this movie as depressingly not much actually goes on throughout its runtime? What does happen I would consider to be engaging enough but it's nothing particularly spectacular either, there's a few cool sequences here and there that I really enjoyed but the large majority of this film is lacking in a lot of detail, that's not to say I thought it was bad in any significant way but it was most definitely incredibly bland in it's execution and could have been handled much better honestly. The best part about the movie as a whole is probably it's intrigue, and just the overall premise of a horror movie taking place from the perspective of a national park ranger because that's one of the most interesting premises possible in my eyes, and was executed beautifully in the game "Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout"... sadly however this movie absolutely was nowhere near the same level. Although the idea of a forest for the setting of a horror movie isn't anything new, I mean "The Blair Witch Project" is literally that, but the details going into the forest here are super interesting but not touched on nearly enough to warrant praise... but they are really cool and if the movie had just focused on that portion more I think it would've been much much better.
By far the best thing about this entire movie has to be the extra acting from our leading actress, Georgina Campbell brings her a-game to this performance and is like ninety percent of what carries this movie from being extremely mediocre to actually surprisingly decent. I have been a fan of this girl ever since I saw her in Zach Cregger's 2022 film "Barbarian" which was a really good surprise for me and her part of the movie was without a doubt the best part (other than Justin Long). She brings the same amount of energy to her role in this movie and especially towards the latter half she really pops off and shines in what is an otherwise very meh experience. I cannot wait to see what else she does, she's in the upcoming Ishana Night Shyamalan film "The Watchers" and I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing what she's going to do there, and I would love to see her in more wacky horror roles because she truly excels when it comes to being put into these bizarre situations and making it all seem incredibly believable and entertaining to watch.
Despite not personally loving this film for the whole of it there is one other major part of it that I want to mention other than the premise itself and Campbell's acting expertise... that being the gorgeous way this thing is shot and just how stunning it all visually looked in my opinion. I was genuinely surprised whenever I started this movie and got hit in the face with some of the coolest looking shots I've ever seen in a horror film and I wholeheartedly loved every single one of them. I doubt they're actually all that impressive when it comes to a filmmaking perspective but I am immensely easy to please when I see a "cool" shot in a movie and the use of perspective here really got me down bad and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience just due to how much I liked the way it all looked... some really cool dynamic shots as well. Overall the use of the camera here by Rui Poças to capture the haunting beauty of the forest landscape and what lies within it was awesome and I absolutely loved it, and I really need to see this guy shoot some more films because this was super impressive and just stunning to my eyeballs. Also there's a cool monster in this movie that has a really great design but is sadly only shown for a few seconds.
All in all I really wanted to love this movie ever since I saw it's trailer a couple months back and saw what I would consider to be the best shot of the film of someone crawling backwards down a tree which I will admit made me very uncomfortable and I enjoyed it, but the rest of the surrounding movie didn't particularly work all that well for me. I don't think this is a bad movie in any significant way but it's also not amazing in any way either, it has some extraordinary parts to it and some fantastic moments that I really did like but the full final product didn't hit the way I was hoping it was gonna. Despite me personally not loving this movie I do still highly recommend checking it out for yourself, it has a super short runtime at even under ninety minutes and is super well acted, well shot, and has a really engaging premise that will absolutely work much better for a lot of other people than me. Plus the movie is free to check out on Tubi which is always a good excuse to watch a movie since you have to give nothing but your time to it, and watching it will (I presume) help those who made it and hopefully they can create another movie even better than this one.. because they definitely had the parts here to create something spectacular and I would wholeheartedly love to see more from the director here, Teresa Sutherland, and I would definitely love to see more movies with cinematography done by Rui Poças. It's not the best but I wouldn't say it's horrible either, give it a chance because it's still worth the time and might even be a favorite for people other than me.
There's not exactly all that much noteworthy about this movie as depressingly not much actually goes on throughout its runtime? What does happen I would consider to be engaging enough but it's nothing particularly spectacular either, there's a few cool sequences here and there that I really enjoyed but the large majority of this film is lacking in a lot of detail, that's not to say I thought it was bad in any significant way but it was most definitely incredibly bland in it's execution and could have been handled much better honestly. The best part about the movie as a whole is probably it's intrigue, and just the overall premise of a horror movie taking place from the perspective of a national park ranger because that's one of the most interesting premises possible in my eyes, and was executed beautifully in the game "Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout"... sadly however this movie absolutely was nowhere near the same level. Although the idea of a forest for the setting of a horror movie isn't anything new, I mean "The Blair Witch Project" is literally that, but the details going into the forest here are super interesting but not touched on nearly enough to warrant praise... but they are really cool and if the movie had just focused on that portion more I think it would've been much much better.
By far the best thing about this entire movie has to be the extra acting from our leading actress, Georgina Campbell brings her a-game to this performance and is like ninety percent of what carries this movie from being extremely mediocre to actually surprisingly decent. I have been a fan of this girl ever since I saw her in Zach Cregger's 2022 film "Barbarian" which was a really good surprise for me and her part of the movie was without a doubt the best part (other than Justin Long). She brings the same amount of energy to her role in this movie and especially towards the latter half she really pops off and shines in what is an otherwise very meh experience. I cannot wait to see what else she does, she's in the upcoming Ishana Night Shyamalan film "The Watchers" and I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing what she's going to do there, and I would love to see her in more wacky horror roles because she truly excels when it comes to being put into these bizarre situations and making it all seem incredibly believable and entertaining to watch.
Despite not personally loving this film for the whole of it there is one other major part of it that I want to mention other than the premise itself and Campbell's acting expertise... that being the gorgeous way this thing is shot and just how stunning it all visually looked in my opinion. I was genuinely surprised whenever I started this movie and got hit in the face with some of the coolest looking shots I've ever seen in a horror film and I wholeheartedly loved every single one of them. I doubt they're actually all that impressive when it comes to a filmmaking perspective but I am immensely easy to please when I see a "cool" shot in a movie and the use of perspective here really got me down bad and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience just due to how much I liked the way it all looked... some really cool dynamic shots as well. Overall the use of the camera here by Rui Poças to capture the haunting beauty of the forest landscape and what lies within it was awesome and I absolutely loved it, and I really need to see this guy shoot some more films because this was super impressive and just stunning to my eyeballs. Also there's a cool monster in this movie that has a really great design but is sadly only shown for a few seconds.
All in all I really wanted to love this movie ever since I saw it's trailer a couple months back and saw what I would consider to be the best shot of the film of someone crawling backwards down a tree which I will admit made me very uncomfortable and I enjoyed it, but the rest of the surrounding movie didn't particularly work all that well for me. I don't think this is a bad movie in any significant way but it's also not amazing in any way either, it has some extraordinary parts to it and some fantastic moments that I really did like but the full final product didn't hit the way I was hoping it was gonna. Despite me personally not loving this movie I do still highly recommend checking it out for yourself, it has a super short runtime at even under ninety minutes and is super well acted, well shot, and has a really engaging premise that will absolutely work much better for a lot of other people than me. Plus the movie is free to check out on Tubi which is always a good excuse to watch a movie since you have to give nothing but your time to it, and watching it will (I presume) help those who made it and hopefully they can create another movie even better than this one.. because they definitely had the parts here to create something spectacular and I would wholeheartedly love to see more from the director here, Teresa Sutherland, and I would definitely love to see more movies with cinematography done by Rui Poças. It's not the best but I wouldn't say it's horrible either, give it a chance because it's still worth the time and might even be a favorite for people other than me.