After discovering the details of a special crime, students attempting to document the crimes at Finland's Lake Bodom back in the1960s for this thesis project, but the longer they stay there investigating the incident find themselves under attack by someone or something not interesting in letting the truth get out.
There's not a lot to like about this effort. Among the few enjoyable features here is the actual setup that manages to effectively evoke a chilling atmosphere while dealing with the topic at hand. The subject of the real-life murders at the heart of the story they're researching offers a fine start here while focusing on the experiences to give their exuberance for the project a fine grounding point to them going to the lake which has a creepy air that's only enhanced by their encounters with the locals at the lake. There's a strong atmosphere to the friendliness of the group trying to be acquaintances with each other which instead leads to the chilling and brutal final half where the encounters become much more terrifying and everything gets flipped on its head with a series of striking revelations that offer up a lot to like here. It's all enough to hold this one up over its big issues. There is a lot that holds this one down. The biggest factor here is a highly irritating and aggravating concept of having the two be at odds with each for nearly the entire time they're together during the trip. That we almost immediately get dropped into their relationship that displays a fairly antagonistic attitude where almost everything in regards to how they interact, from what kind of camera they bring along to how infrequent and ill-prepared they are to going flying and the use of their rental car which always devolves down into arguments at the slightest drop of a hat. That tends to make them highly unlikable and makes their journey together highly questionable, especially once a completely needless subplot is introduced that tends to introduce the reasoning for their bitterness but that just makes their relationship even more suspect than before this part of the film suffers greatly. The other factor here that holds this one up is the somewhat underwhelming series of action featured during the big confrontations in the final half. This is the part of the film that suffers the most with the found footage format as this series of confrontations and encounters in the woods around their house as there's very little to figure out what's going on as we're just guessing because the night-time camera lighting giving everything a dark green haze and camera movements that are so erratic all it does is make the audience confused as to make is actually happening in a blur of footage. Considering what's going on, this type of format hurts the actions so much as the scenes you want to see the most are hampered by the filmmaking format rendering the images nearly impossible to make out. On top of that, the series of reveals that come about involving their history is just lame and underwhelming to the point of not being believable in the slightest, all of which holds this down.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.
