A masterpiece of suspense and terror

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2000)

There is only one thing required to be spooked by this movie...an imagination. I read all these people saying that this is the worst movie they've ever seen. Oh, it wasn't scary, the people were stupid, it wasn't realistic, etc. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Those people missed the point of the movie entirely. You weren't supposed to be analyzing the peoples actions. You were supposed to experiencing what was happening to them. That's why EVERY second of this movie is shown through someone's point of view. That was the whole point behind the filming technique. You weren't supposed to be watching what was happening. It was supposed to be happening to you. Have you ever been lost? Heard a strange noise in the middle of the night? Been afraid in a situation that was completely out of your control? Fear is based purely on one thing...the unknown. Humans fear the unknown more than anything else. We fear dying because we don't know what it will be like. We fear pain because until it happens, we don't know what it will feel like. We fear loss because we don't know if we will be able to cope with that loss. That was the focus of the characters fears. They don't know what they are hearing at night. Who is watching them? What do the want? Why won't they show themselves? Now people complained (spoiler here) that when the characters discover neatly stacked piles rocks surrounding their tent one morning that that wasn't scary. Of ourse rocks aren't scary. They're rocks. The point is that someone was there. Someone, or something, was right outside their tent that night. They were there long enough to build those rock piles. Whatever was watching them had gotten that close to them, and they didn't even know it. Now THAT is scary. And that is the whold point of the movie. Things that are happening aren't sxplained. your imagination is let free to run wild. You think of the creepy stories told earlier in the movie and wonder what it is that is coming for them. We are all born afraid. But there are two kinds of fear: instinctive fear, and learned fear. We are born afraid of things like the dark, sudden loud noises, abandonment. We have to be taught to be afraid of things like, strangers, sharp objects, weapons. This movie plays on those primal fears. You can't cotrol what is going on. You are completely at the mercy of whatever is stalking you. So what if things aren't explained in great detail? You are left to think about the movie and draw your own conclusions. Roger Ebert said it best, "The noise in the dark is scarier than what makes the noise in the dark." My, and the movies', point exactly. Truly a great film that is guaranteed to give you a world class case of the creeps long after the movie has ended Just put yourself in their shoes and let your imagination do the rest. **** out of ****.