Taking a road trip together, a group of friends arrive at a vacation home in the middle of the forest and decide to start partying and having fun, but when they discover a strange cave nearby the group is soon inundated with a series of strange incidents with a malevolent force inside the cave and must stop it to leave the area.
Overall, this one is an intriguing and enjoyable indie effort. One of the strongest points here is the rather fun setup that provides a multitude of excuses for the group to engage in their shenanigans. Taking the ever-popular storyline of a group of friends heading out for a weekend of fun and partying only to come across an unsuspecting terror instead, this wisely gets the group out to the house early on with minimal stalling to engage in their planned fun. The requisite partying, drinking, and having laughs together paints everyone as a genuinely likable friend group that enjoys hanging out with each other that's incredibly rare to see in such fare as the usual arguing and yelling is absent from the beginning. The discovery and exploration of the cave that they find nearby is an equally intriguing setup that serves to be the igniting factor for the terrors to come as their blissful ignorance of the near non-existent safety precautions brings them into contact with the strangeness of the cave. With this in place, the film moves into a rather intriguing amount of supernatural flair demonstrating the evil inside the cave. The discovery and initial exploration of the cave are fine enough, taking the group through the tight corridors and spacious clearings while the dimly-lit surroundings the deeper they descend add immensely to the tension of the location. Once they leave, the strange acts that unfold are quite fun with the one group member being terrified of something inside the cave but unable to explain it, the group being unable to leave makes the rest of the action somewhat intriguing with the escalating need to discover what's going on. That causes the group to stumble into the evil influence living inside that brings about some thrilling stalking and slashing in the final half as not only the action inside the cave but a solid flashback reveals the true nature of what's gone on before it which adds nicely to the film as a whole. All told, these come together for a lot to like here. That said, there are some minor drawbacks in place for this one. The main detriment featured is the all-too-obvious indie-level budget featured that's on display quite frequently and may not be for everyone. With a small cast, limited locations, no real spectacle-grabbing effects, and a generally scaled-down production, the film falls right in line with standard low-budget genre fare. Opting more for characterization and story is a very common trait for films without much in the way of budget and while there's a means of getting around that it's still pretty apparent. This ties into the other issue where the stilted pacing leaves a lot of the running time devoid of any action. It's great that they arrive so early, but it's only in the final twenty minutes that anything major happens. Not having a lot of action is another note for a low-budget effort as the lack of budget for action leaves more time for the film to rely on dialog like this so it can be a problematic factor for some out there.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
