Nice try, fails in the attempt, unconvincing

Rating: 2/10 (7 August 2001)

One thing I should mention beforehand: I was really impressed by the makers of the film and how they managed to sell the movie to the extent they did, given that it's really not a professional, or even usual type of movie. Apart from that, nothing works in the film, except for the actors who generally did a good job.
/*possible spoilers*/ While I can just about accept American teenagers of whom noone has a mobile phone, given that the movie does play early in the nineties, I certainly cannot accept people on an expedition throwing away their maps (that really was very very cheap as a twist). Furthermore, what do you do when you're lost in the woods and come across a river? Correct - you follow the river downstream. It's an easy way out if you've lost all other means of orientation. There is some basic stuff people going on expeditions like the one in BWP simply know and the plot should respect that. /*end possible spoilers*/
In the end, I found the film boring. The scary effects aren't really scary, the characters totally unconvincing in their actions (though the actors did their job well as I said). I guess the main problem was that I had really high expectations, given all the hype that's been going on about the film. Well, I'm sorry - but if you produce that kind of hype, you better be able to live up to it.