Let me begin by saying that this movie was obviously shot on a limited budget but this still could have been a cult classic. Let's start with the plot shall we: Two young couples get stranded in the middle of nowhere after having decided to take a shortcut (yes yes, very original). They quickly learn that they have just entered bear territory and soon they find themselves surrounded by hungry grizzly bears.
Simple story indeed but just like I thought "Five Across The Eyes" succeeded in many ways, I really thought this would succeed in the exact same ways since it's shot in a similar style. Now the movie kicks off quite fast and keeps going at a rapid pace. The actors are surprisingly great and the panic feels real. You know what else is real? The bears! Not CGI-crap, these are actual bears... well for most of the time anyway. Every now and then we see a VERY fake-looking snout and the occasional friendly-looking cotton-paw with - what looks like - soft claws. Indeed they seem to have been using an over-sized teddy bear in quite a few scenes but the shots are so quick that it doesn't really do any harm to the movie.
However, the thing that does harm the movie are all the obvious goofs in it. The movie takes place at night-time, yet some scenes are so OBVIOUSLY shot in the middle of the day that it doesn't even look as if they tried to cover this up. What's even worse is that we see the "fence" surrounding the area in several frames. There's even one point where we can see the boom operator clear as day (trust me, you can't miss it). What started off as a potentially awesome movie was soon dragged down by an amateurish crew and increasingly ridiculous dialogues. Still, if you're a fan of killer bears, I think it's worth checking out, it should've been a cult classic but will most likely end up in the bargain bin unless they do some serious changes and re-shoots for the American release (the DVD reviewed is the UK DVD - which by the way was bare-bones - no extras except for some trailers).
Simple story indeed but just like I thought "Five Across The Eyes" succeeded in many ways, I really thought this would succeed in the exact same ways since it's shot in a similar style. Now the movie kicks off quite fast and keeps going at a rapid pace. The actors are surprisingly great and the panic feels real. You know what else is real? The bears! Not CGI-crap, these are actual bears... well for most of the time anyway. Every now and then we see a VERY fake-looking snout and the occasional friendly-looking cotton-paw with - what looks like - soft claws. Indeed they seem to have been using an over-sized teddy bear in quite a few scenes but the shots are so quick that it doesn't really do any harm to the movie.
However, the thing that does harm the movie are all the obvious goofs in it. The movie takes place at night-time, yet some scenes are so OBVIOUSLY shot in the middle of the day that it doesn't even look as if they tried to cover this up. What's even worse is that we see the "fence" surrounding the area in several frames. There's even one point where we can see the boom operator clear as day (trust me, you can't miss it). What started off as a potentially awesome movie was soon dragged down by an amateurish crew and increasingly ridiculous dialogues. Still, if you're a fan of killer bears, I think it's worth checking out, it should've been a cult classic but will most likely end up in the bargain bin unless they do some serious changes and re-shoots for the American release (the DVD reviewed is the UK DVD - which by the way was bare-bones - no extras except for some trailers).