I love a good bad movie, if you know what I mean.
Cheesy plots, poor acting, bad special effects and lame music usually make my night.
I also love really good movies, where all the elements are seamlessly directed and molded into a fine masterpiece.
THIS movie, unfortunately, falls right in the middle, which is much like being friend-zoned by the girl you love. The words "almost," "lukewarm," "medium," and even "common" fit this movie more than any other words I can think of.
The acting is good overall, with one major flaw: The director allows too much space between each line, giving the flow of the dialogue a halting, plodding effect. This is not the fault of the actors, it's the fault of the director and even the editor. It ultimately did not feel natural at all. The actors never even successfully interrupted each other. They just kept waiting patiently for the other person to finish their line. It felt hesitant.
The music, on the other hand, was absolutely sub par in every respect. The entire "soundtrack," if you'd care to bless it with such a prestigious title, was entirely made of one guy (maybe two, I don't know) playing his bass guitar and doing some other guitar work over the top from time to time, with scary sound effects mixed in. It was much too simple, and was played way too loudly at the "scary" parts of the film, quite literally drowning out the action! And there was one, and ONLY one, musical theme, consisting of three notes, doh may ray, played over and over and over and over and over and over again to the point of absolute annoyance. Don't you think that even an amateur musician could come up with something slightly more.. long-ish?
I kept thinking of a hippy smoking weed in his garage, playing the same three notes on his bass and saying to himself, "Oh maaaan dude! Maaaaaaan. This would make such a great soundtrack."
Other than that, I quite enjoyed the film. The setting was nicely done, being filmed in a wet, lush environment that left you feeling that warm, dry creatures like human beings didn't really belong in it, and were less than welcome. It was good usage of the terrain and gave the film an adequately creepy feel. The actual shooting of the footage was nicely handled as well.
And the reactions of the protagonists to their situation, while somewhat unoriginal, were believable enough. Though I must admit, there was not really any surprises in this movie. You sort of see everything coming.
Overall, I just feel that this film was good, but didn't deliver the way it could have.