A home video -- not particularly scary nor America's funniest

Rating: 2/10 (1 August 1999)

This movie was not mis-represented as a home-made project in the least. In fact, at the end, my companion and I looked at each other and said, we could have done that ... and better! But it certainly started with potential and some interest. The combination of three young student film-makers with the suggestion of promising personalities and a potential for complex interactions plus a ghost legend and a goal of making a documentary -- this could lead to a quality movie experience. However, that quickly dissolved into a very LONG and tedious collection of amateur photography accentuated by unimaginative and annoying dialogue. And where was the scary part the hype was all about? After all, camping in the Maryland woods is not fraught with grizzly bears and other dangerous critters. There was so much space between the trees and open level ground that even a psychopathic killer doesn't present a terrific threat. The frustration was watching three not very intelligent people manage to act like idiots in the great outdoors. To an experienced camper and outdoorsperson, this was intolerable. Why was it, they never really start to get out of the now frightening area until an hour before sun down? Why is it, they are falling apart psychologically after only two nights outdoors? Why are they falling apart psychologically at all? Why do they have to resort to bellowing and slamming things around? Why don't they follow the stream to get out? Is all this lack of outdoors competence supposed to be explained by some sort of bewitched state of mind? Is going around in circles part of the evil spell? And who the heck is stupid enough to go into an abandoned house with eerie symbols painted all over it when you're already terrified of bad things happening? It's that spell again, huh. By the way, if this is supposed to take eight days ... where were the search and rescue planes and bloodhounds, or were their parents just as glad to be rid of them as we were when the movie was over? The Maryland woods are neither huge, nor the epitome of wilderness. We likened the experience to taking one of those haunted house rides in an amusement part -- where you rationally expect things to jump out at you throughout the ride, but instead, they just turn out the lights and you ride around in the dark until --- you're back outdoors again and the ride is over. Admittedly -- it is scary because you were constantly expecting the worst. But frankly, after getting back outside, you would reflect and say -- I paid money for that???? If the movie left us with anything it was with a standing joke about bunches of twigs wrapped with twine and blue gel toothpaste smeared all over.