Exactly what I hoped it would be, and much more than I expected!

Rating: 9/10 (16 April 2015)

I've known of this movie for the past 16 years, yet only got around to watching it today. Having seen the trailer, known the plot and read the reviews, I admit that the reason I avoided this film for so long was due to my incredibly low expectations of it, both as a horror film, and as a film in general.
Yet I was drawn into the story within the first 30 minutes and couldn't look away until it was over.
While I can understand the generally negative reviews of this movie, I strongly believe that in order to fully appreciate this film, one only need use a bit of imagination. This isn't an artistic film, this isn't philosophical and this isn't about character development. This film is purely mindless entertainment that delivers quite well as a horror film if one is willing to imagine that these events truly occurred.
The film plays on a lot of essential horror elements that give the viewer the unsettling feeling of fear and uneasiness, while delivering these in a realistic manner. You won't get some CGI scares or a guy running around in costume, there is no eerie soundtrack. The feeling of fear that this film provides is entirely based on what is happening to the three film students.
Indeed, a certain sense of dread creeps up on the viewer from the very moment the group leave the car by the road. Perhaps this is because the viewer is told that the students will not survive from the very start of the movie.
To me, the most unnerving and frightening element in this film was the feeling of hopelessness that the group share upon realizing that they are truly lost. This, coupled with the strange occurrences, definitely makes for a terrifying experience as the film goes on. The subtleties in the supernatural elements keep this movie from becoming another overdone horror film in which a certain climax is reached; we never see the witch. The group can never really know that the strange events are anything truly supernatural. We never see anything to indicate that a witch exists (though the careful viewer may notice that all the events do make sense when remembering the stories from the start of the film.)
Although the characters lack a certain feel of realism and depth, and I felt that this film did have room for improvement in certain areas, these were minor drawbacks and they did not for a moment take me out of the experience. As stated earlier, this movie was about one thing: horror.
I feel that this film did an amazing job in entrancing the audience on a low budget. It stayed authentic from beginning to end and left room for speculation as to any possible meanings at the end. Personally, I enjoy a film that requires one to think about its meaning rather than just laying it all out for the viewer.
As a fan of both classic and modern horror made on a budget, I found this film to be exactly what I hoped it would be, and much more than I expected. I already know that this movie will stick with me for a long time.