Rating: 2.5/5
Hooptober 2.0 | 26/31 | Monster 1/5
The boys are at the pub. Luke grabs some pints for Phil, Hutch, and Dom while Rob drinks wine. The gang discusses their upcoming holiday. Rob suggests The King’s Trail (Kungsleden), a hiking route that runs between Sweden and Norway in the northern part of Sweden. No one’s that into it, so they leave it.
On the way home, Luke wants to keep drinking, but the boys are feeling their 40s. Rob’s up for it and they hit up a liquor store. Luke notices the woman behind the register is on the ground, her face bloodied. Two robbers emerge from the back room. Luke slips behind the shelf and hides. Rob, frozen, stands in place. The robbers shake down Rob and demand Rob’s wedding ring. When he doesn’t give it up, one robber slashes Rob’s face and beats him to the ground. While Rob bleeds out, the men rifle through his pockets to find nothing else and leave.
Luke wakes up in his sleeping bag and tent. Six months have passed since Rob’s death. Luke, Phil, Hutch, and Dom are hiking the Kungsleden in Rob’s memory. The boys march to the top of a steep hill. There, the boys build a shrine with rocks, candles, and a photo of Rob. Luke blames himself for Rob’s death, even though the others have assured him otherwise. That night, Luke and Hutch see lights in the woods.
The next day, a constant rain falls on the boys as they hike. They soldier on through the golden grass and ash-gray rock. While cursing Sweden to lick his gooch, Dom misses a dip and falls hard into it, injuring his knee. They are still miles away from their destination. No one has cell reception. Hutch suggests they cut through the woods and go to the lights they saw last night. Luke is reluctant to leave the trail, but Dom overhears and insists on the shortcut. As they walk, Hutch checks his compass.
While hiking through the woods, the group spots an elk hanged in the tree branches. Someone (or something) cut open the elk and poured its guts out on the ground several feet below it. It’s also still bleeding, meaning the kill is fresh. The rain worsens as night falls, and the group finds an abandoned cabin. What they find inside will pull back the curtains and make these boys experience F E E L I N G S.
The film also deals with colonialism. These are British boys marching into an unknown territory and acting as if it owes them passage. This troupe is common in folk horror.
For most of the movie, the boys deal with their fear of the unknown. They each experience nightmares that travel into their fears and pains. What do Brits fear most? I’ll discuss more at the SPOILER ZONE.
The filmmaking is altogether good. It uses a lot of CGI and it mostly works. The third act has some ambitions the filmmakers can’t quite reach — namely, the creature. But it never falters so much that it took me out.
We don’t really have characters. Luke is mostly “the guy who saw Rob die.” Hutch is “the guy with a compass.” Dom is “the guy with the knee injury.” And Phil is… the British Asian guy, I guess.
We also get little in terms of story. We get some answers, but they won’t surprise anyone who has seen, say, The Wicker Man or The Blair Witch Project.
Overall, this movie is decent. I understand why some folks love it. I wanted the film to develop more themes than the obvious and tired one. When it ended, I felt like I experienced little.
** SPOILER TALK ** So, the biggest fear of the predominantly atheist England is a god they must bow to. As colonizers, they may bring their god to you, but never the other way around. So, when Luke must bow to the god of the forest, who gives the villagers eternal life, he would rather kill all of them and set their village on fire than bow.
I know, I know, he’s showing he’s changed by facing his fear instead of hiding in cowardice like he did with Rob. But folk horror is often about how men think they can control nature, and how it overwhelms them. This film is about men who think they can control nature, and do.