Not as scary as led to believe

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 1999)

First off this movie was creepy, but not bone jarringly terrifying as I was led to believe by reviewers (amateur or professional) and friends.
I actually found the Sci-Fi Channel's special to be more frightening than the movie itself. As soon as the line about the kids disappearing runs you know the outcome of the movie.

Negatives of the movie: 1. The characters. Early on, all of this freaky stuff is going on & they're still worried about getting the rented equipment back. 2. The fact that not one of them, even Josh the hippy, can figure out to follow the river/stream. I've been in college a good while now, and camping is one of top activities of college students. You pick up on things like following streams pretty early on in your camping life. People might say I'm nit-picking the movie, but come on. Then again they were Film Students... 3. The end of the movie. Quite frankly people won't understand the end unless they are paying rapt attention to the beginning. Unfortunately, that is almost impossible with large # of teenagers in the audience.
Positives: 1. It's surprisingly funny. Many of the lines were well received by the audience. 2. You grow a bond with the characters with or without your consent. I knew the movie was fake from the get go, and I was still able to form a bond with the characters. 3. It's really creepy.
Overall, the movie would have been much, much scarier if the directors would have kept the fact that it was fake longer. Just have the end credits say something like "Footage compiled by..." instead of the full credits at the end.