A truly unsettling film...

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2006)

I do not usually feel compelled to write reviews on this site, but for this film, I felt I had to say something. I don't entirely know what counts as a "spoiler" in this film, but I'm going to mark this review as having them, just in case.
For the first thirty minutes, we see Heather (the bossy director of the project and principal camera operator), Josh (Heather's friend and secondary camera operator), and Mike (the sound guy) doing some half-hearted interviews, and goofing off. Heather, it seems, isn't a very good documentarian, or interviewer (I kept wanting to tell her to shut up and let the interviewees speak, instead of interrupting them with her own ideas half the time). After a night of drinking, they start out into the woods. Then, at around thirty minutes into the film, some things start to happen. The group gets lost. They lose their map. Their food and cigarette supplies dwindle. Their tempers run high. And, worst of all, they start seeing strange sights, and hearing strange noises at night. Gradually, all of them start to lose their minds. When one of the group disappears completely, it marks the end of the project, and the beginning of the group's fight for survival, which the viewer already knows they will lose. And in the last ten minutes...well, I'm not even going to say what happens in the last ten minutes. It's intense, terrifying, and very ambiguous.
If I had never had any sort of experience with the outdoors, I doubt I would have been affected by this film at all. But since I have been camping many times, I was perfectly able to put myself in the three filmmaker's exact situation, and I know exactly how I would react if I ever experienced what they did (which is to say, I would sh*t my pants and die of fright). That is why this film is so scary. I remember what it is like to be outside, in the woods, at night, away from everything and everyone you know, sleeping in a tent. Your tent, once seen as a thing of comfort, now seems woefully insufficient as a shelter when you consider how thin it is, and how lightweight. If someone, or something, wanted to come in, it most assuredly could, any time it wanted to. It is dark, and cold outside, and every single noise is magnified many times. A single deer ambling outside the tent sounds like a herd of elephants. Now add in the fact that you're lost, hungry, and being stalked by an unseen supernatural being or force, which you can neither see nor control. It's a very sobering thought. With this film, it's what you don't see that is far more terrifying than what you do see. The "witch" is never shown, so you're forced to use your imagination. Even if you're not initially frightened by the film, you're hearing noises and looking over your shoulder afterwards.
So, for those of you who were not scared by this film, I suggest you go out camping out in the woods sometime. If you do that and you still say the film isn't scary, I say you're a big fat liar. This film is scary. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.