MovieChat Forums > Grey Skies Discussion > You'll want to be avoiding this one (a n...

You'll want to be avoiding this one (a non-spoiler review)


So, a group of friends drive up one by one to a cabin out in woods somewhere. Apparently, every year this same group of friends go on a trip somewhere together, and this year the guy whose turn it is to pick the spot chose a secluded cabin to rent. While we're getting to know the characters, we learn that there are undertones and backstories between some, but not all, of the characters. This attempt at character development actually weakens the characters we don't learn about instead of strengthening the characters we do. It sort of like 'The Big Chill' without the funeral and without developing most of the characters (you said boring, not me). Ok, this is pretty much the only part of the film that makes any sense plot wise, and shortly after we're introduced to the cast of characters, the weird stuff starts going down. The next hour or so is essentially a lot of screaming, running back and forth, getting angry with each other, and did I mention screaming? I'm actually ok with mentioning screaming twice since there's so much of it. I don't blame the director for so much screaming though because the dialogue is so poor, I'd probably choose screaming over the words in the script too.
But don't worry, the director doesn't get of the hook either. In an attempt to coverup a basement budget, he uses a lot of shaky, blurry, and subliminal (on screen for .5 second) cuts. The result was just frustrating as I wasn't under the illusion that this film had a big budget, and would have preferred to see low budget effects rather than a "cover-up" camera job. The choices of direction that I could focus in on were competent, but when the action (if you can call it that) begins, most of the choices are extremely hammy and cliched.
The dialogue makes me think whoever wrote this has never had any interaction with other human beings because it's so forced and unnatural. Certainly, the writer has never been around a group of friends. When the initial meet and greet takes place as the characters begin to show up at the cabin, I was cringing at how cheesy it was. Yes, this is partly the fault of the actors, but they really had absolutely nothing to work with, so they get off easy. Except for the main couple; the first we see. They made it difficult for me to invest in the characters as I always felt I was watching two actors acting instead of their characters living.
I never really had my questions answered, which is okay in films with a strong premise, but this had such a murky motivation to it, that I was frustrated that the film didn't at least give me an explanation for everything at the end. In fact, it's just before the climax of the film (if you can call it that) where I thought the writer just got lazy or didn't care anymore because he turned whatever plot there was into swiss cheese. From then on, the film changed character motivations from scene to scene, making the characters continuity impossible to believe.
By the time the credits rolled, I was just smirking to myself because of how insignificant the story was. I could see what the story was going for (failing at developing plot twists), but it had absolutely no impact by the time we make it through the final muddied twenty minutes. It's just completely cliche riddled by the end, and whatever shred of ingenuity there was, is completely lost. I don't think a big budget could have saved this one. The story is too flawed, and well, boring. You could watch this and forget about it tomorrow or you could forget about it right now and save yourself an hour and a half (if you can call it that).

reply

[deleted]