Black Rock

This film seems to be a rip-off of the British movie THE HIKE, which came out a year earlier and has pretty much exactly the same storyline (although the unfolding action is different, obviously). This is slim, independent film-making with a small cast and smaller budget. Three girls decide to go out into the wilderness for a camping trip, only to meet a trio of ex-soldiers, and things unfold from there.

I disliked this film from the opening scenes, and that's down to the script. The dialogue given to the main characters is puerile and you end up hating them from the outset. What's with that one girl pretending she had cancer in order to emotionally blackmail the others? It's pretty sick and you lose all respect for that character despite the best efforts of the actress playing her.

The story that unfolds is very predictable, with tons of these "survival horror" type films having been made in recent years. You don't care about the predicament of the leads and everything that happens feels stale and too well telegraphed in advance. I burst out laughing at the gratuitous nude scene and at the artifice of the ending where you can easily guess what happens. Non-existent acting, a horrid script, and unlikeable characters sink this from the outset.