Spookier the next day

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2002)

I thought that this film worked extremely well on the first viewing (though in subsequent screenings the impact tends to diminish.) To fully appreciate this movie you have to suspend a little of your disbelief, though not much, and put yourself in their shoes as you watch it. One of the other comments mentioned how each night gets just a tiny bit worse, with the dread increasing as the sun got lower in the trees, and that was one of my strongest impressions as well. All you need to let BWP creep you out is a modicum of imagination. Most modern horror films rely more on gore and special effects than on genuine suspense, and it was really refreshing to see a movie where you NEVER see the evil.
The odd thing, though, is that the film takes about 12 hours to sink in. I went to see it with my brother and his girlfriend, and we all three walked out of the theater somewhat underwhelmed. We hadn't considered it to be white-knuckle scary at any time. (My brother's girlfriend did make her cat get out of the corner of the living room when she got home, though!) But by midmorning of the next day I couldn't get the movie out of my head - it had corkscrewed its way up my spine and wrapped around my brainstem overnight. It was MUCH scarier that following morning. The scene where the voodoo-type setup was found struck me the next day as particularly creepy and disturbing (I think that scene was more effective because it used the simple material that could be found anywhere in the forest. The transferrence of horror and dread onto simple sticks and rocks was one of the things I really liked about the movie.) BWP stayed with me for a good week. They should never have made a sequel, though, especially one that relied on elements of stock Hollywood horror films. But I guess it's hard to catch lightning in a bottle twice...