As PUBLIC ENEMY once said so perfectly-Don't believe the hype! Boyeeeez!

Rating: 2/10 (21 July 1999)

Oh boy, I think all of these glowing reviews for this movie are spawned by the wonderful workings of the hype machine. Once "certain" moviegoers get it in their head that a movie is going to be great, and scary, and wonderful, and all of that -- they will almost be hypnotized into thinking the movie is all it is cracked up to be. They will walk out and parrot everything they've heard everyone else say -- because it's the concensus and it is easier than going against the grain. Right now, it is apparently "hip" to really dig this movie, and say you've seen it and loved it. Well, believe me -- it is truly underwhelming. I think that is in understatement, but I do not know how else to put it.
My severely edited version of the film:
"I want to make a student film! You two are helping me."
"Ok, pushy girl."
"Oh no! We're lost!"
(screaming): "You @$$hole!"
"Oh my god, what is that!"
(Viewer, responding): I don't know, I didn't see anything -- but I am supposed to think that it is "intelligent" of the filmmakers to not let us see what is out there, because hey -- isn't that more scary?

"Oh no! We've lost one of our friends!"
(weird voices from woods that sound suspiciously like student filmmakers)
(more screaming)
"Ahh, where'd the other guy go?"
(guy dead in corner)
THE END
Booooring! This could've been 20 minutes long, and it would have been an excellent short film. But they stretched it out, and in between the So so opening and the Ok ending they put in a lot of crapola. Too much screaming, which is obviously the directors' strained attempts at coercing the audience into feeling tense and scared, and too much walking around feigning being lost.
After watching the "footage" (which was the scariest thing about the film -- because of how darn shaky and nausiating it was!), all I could ask myself was "Wouldn't these idiots put down their cameras if they knew they were being hunted?" DUH! Come on! It was so obvious the filmmakers kept finding ways to make it plausable that they would continue shooting so that the "being there" aspect would work. It didn't. Especially the part when the girl is shooting the left side of her face -- with a light on -- even after they had talked about not having any lights on so they wouldn't be found. I mean, it is so silly and utterly unrealistic to be filming yourself if you think you are going to die. Who the F- cares if it turns out cool in your student film project, that is if you make it out of the woods alive!? A thoroughly uninteresting film, and not scary at all! What is scary is that someone would actually call this one of the best horror movies ever. I even read that someone thought it was one of thhe best films ever!? There are far more scary films out there. Don't get me wrong, I think the "realistic" horror film is far far scarier, and more respectable then the easy road of blood n' guts -- but this...this is just silly. Rent "The Silence of the Lambs" - a truly scary film that doesn't even fall in the horror genre. Or possibly "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," or even "Peeping Tom" These are scary films. Not this bad attempt at a student film.
C'mon. Get real. Get over it. Don't believe the hype.