There have been a lot of films like this. "Deliverance" "Mean Creek" even to a certain extent "Lord of the Flies" That by no means makes this film any less enjoyable, or in its way new, or fresh.
Four girls go out on a canoe trip (Alysha, Candice, Morgan and Steph) along with Steph's older brother Jonah who is a counselor at the summer camp they all attend. Everything is going well for a while, Jonah tries to get Steph over her fear of water since she had witnessed her father die in a water accident. Alysha has her eye on Jonah, after disappearing together for a little while the other girls start to suspect something. Later that night Alysha and Jonah nearly kiss, when they are discovered Alysha runs into the woods, and Jonah follows. There is an accident and Jonah dies. The rest of the film is the girls struggling to survive, to find a way out of the wilderness and what to do with Jonah's body.
Something that stuck out to me, is that since it was a true accident there was no turning on one another going on, which you tend to see in this kind of film. Instead the conflict is brought upon with the problem that Steph doesn't want to leave his body behind, and all these girls are pencil thin(not going to be easy to carry him). As well as Steph has just lost her brother, and had lost her father, so she isn't doing well. There are many films that depict realistically the way we as a species have forgotten how to survive in these sorts of situations. They don't have food, there are animals out there and they are getting weaker and weaker.
There is surprisingly little dialogue in certain parts of the film, and I was very happy with this. The conflict boiled under the surface and only reared its ugly head once in a while, but the tension was always there. For the girls being so young in this the acting was very good, there were of course moments that were over the top, or the inflection in someones voice wasn't quite right, but easily over looked. I saw a movie a while ago called "Paranoid Park" it did well at festivals and was directed by Gus Van Sant, so I thought it might be good, it wasn't, no one should ever watch this movie. Anyway, the cast in that is about the same age as the girls in this, and the acting was so God awful. So to compare the two is like comparing apples and a rotted orange.
The direction as well was spot on, it played out slowly, and wasn't trying to shove to much in, but let it be realistic. The Cinematography at times was gorgeous, but since they were working outside the use of lights was minimized and so didn't have the dramatic flair you might want to see. Although during night scenes, specifically when Alysha is running away and Jonah is following the lighting was great. They used flash lights so you'd only see her for a moment at a time and then gone, very cool. As well as a scene with Steph and something in the woods, all she has is a small flashlight, that's a pretty narrow scope when something is stalking you.
Overall I liked it. Since the story wasn't all that original, and they didn't bring much to the table in terms of new material I cant give it to high a rating. But that's not to say it wasn't good. If there was anything in it I would say would push someone to see it would be the narration by Steph, especially the last monologue, it wasn't over written, it just was the thoughts of a 14 year old girl, raw and sad. 7/10 stars.
Directors: Sascha Drews, Ezra Krybus, Matthew Miller
Starring: Stephannie Richardson, Guy Yarkoni, Alysha Aubin, Candice Mausner, Morgan McCunn
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