William Castle meets Cannibal Holocaust

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 1999)

Don't believe the hyperbole: this is a resourceful, effective and bold scare movie, but it is far from original. The narrative conceit of this film is lifted whole-hog from Ruggero Deodato's notorious Cannibal Holocaust (1979). Astute cinema aficionados will recall that film's similar but entirely more convincing and properly established recovered-documentary-footage-of-film-crew-lost-in-the-wild motif. The promotional campaign tactics (which are, of course, contributing much to the film's effect) are a subtle reworking of the scare-em-before-they're-even-inside-the-theater technique immortalized by the great William (13 Ghosts, Homicidal, The Tingler, et al) Castle.
TBWP is intermittently nerve-racking, unpredictable, and surprising, but is badly marred by unjudicious pacing, an unsustained mood and some nagging technical oversights (read: slick sound mixing, over-precise editing) that will likely un-suspend the knowing viewer's suspension of disbelief.
That being said, it's nice to see ultra-low-budget scare movies back in the theaters where they belong.