Good but really overrated

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 1999)

This is an excellent and inventive film, a translation of the traditional campfire ghost story into a film that looks like it was made by campers. There is even a message: As Heather keeps reassuring herself that it is impossible to get lost in America, one realizes that America is not just the neo-European civilization created in the last few centuries, but a vast threatening wilderness still containing magic and danger. ('The Shining' had a similar message: America as a beautiful building resting on Indian corpses, images of violence intruding into an otherwise perfect but artificial realm.)
But still, the film is just a tale about three kids getting lost in the woods. The amount of hype and hoopla surrounding it have been too much. It ain't 'Citizen Kane' folks.