a brilliant miracle film

Rating: Null/10 (8 October 1999)

I saw this film on it's opening weekend in Halifax and it scared the **** out of me. I haven't been scared like this since I saw Alien 20 years ago.
This movie was made by 2 guys sketching out a story line, planning like hell and sending 3 actors into the woods for a few days.
I've never heard of this approach before and I have to say that it's been very successful. I'm only afraid that it's going to be ripped off til it's dead. The acting requirements for the film were negligable as the 3 campers were interacting with one another authentically. As a result the language was casually profane and as they became more scared the profanitymultiplied.
This movie draws the audience in. Not because of the stirring dialogue, not because of the great special effects, not because of the stars, and not because of the character development, but because it's filmed from the characters perspective and the characters are real people and their terror is directly translated to you. You can't help but squirm.
I have been upset by the comments that I read that people didn't like the film because of the language. Jees, guys, you sound like my parents. These were real people in a real situation. They talk that way. It's like saying that you don't like a film because the theatre was too cold. For an honest viewer, one should have nothing to do with the other. If you don't like the F-word don't go see a movie that's rated R for language content and then cut it up for that same reason. That's rude.
If you can pull your fried egg away from the phantom menace for a few brief hours and open your mind you could scare yourself to death with this one.