What a waste of my time!!!

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I don't know what this film was trying to be - fake documentary, monster in the woods, slasher, psycho.... What I DO know is it failed on all counts. The acting was just too terrible, the characters totally unbelievable (that upbeat father was meant to be dying of cancer!), the editing really bad, the violence too staged....ok the outdoor lighting was great. I really wanted to like this film because the opening scene is gnarly as hell. Pity it all goes to s%$# from there.

Traveling out to the woods, a family renting a cabin-in-the-woods to help heal a fallen family member find that the mysterious intruder they find in the woods is harboring far more demonic and deadly secrets than they expected and turns their weekend into a nightmarish struggle to survive.This was a rather fun and overall enjoyable effort. One of the most impressive elements featured here is the way this one manages to weave together a truly gripping and somewhat creative storyline together. The central concept of the visit out to the remote cabin which is a dual-ended setup with the real-time layout of the trip and the concurrent TV-show presentation looking back over the incident in the past-tense. This is wholly unique and enjoyable with the entire concept taking a rather inventive series of twists and turns as this plays out but overall coming off with a stellar concept. Once this dives into the more overt supernatural aspects of the storyline, this one has a lot of fun playing up the antics of the past. By turning into a rather fun mixture between supernatural entity, home invasion-styled slasher and a killer-in-the-woods style effort, this mix provides wholly engaging and frantic ideas here. The fantastic early setup here, from the pre-credits attack on the couple in the woods to the startling first shot of the possessed going crazy in the dining room taking out the first members of the group and getting in some great action with several brawls to get them under control while the hysteria and freakouts are genuinely featured. Even employing the demonic body-hopping concept in fine form here with the scenes of the various possessed family members turning and contorting into vicious demon-like beings has a lot to like in that regard which makes this one of the best scenes in the film. With that scene setting the stage for the terrific final half, that ratchets up the tension really nicely by turning the action into a fun series of setpieces not only around the cabin but also the surrounding woods. With the turned demonic beings hunting down and targeting the remaining members in several brief and somewhat enjoyable confrontations that are given far more weight once the big showdown occurs which manages to offer up a truly stellar finale with her going around confronting the various demonic beings which has a lot of great action and vicious gore on offer. Playing into the twist with the need for the TV show coverage and how that turned around on her that has a great final reveal full of fantastic practical effects that sell this incredibly well. Overall, these here are what makes for a great time over it's few minor flaws. Among the main problems to be had with this one is the overall confusing nature of the storyline on the first watch, as there's no real preparation here for the dual nature of what's going on. It's somewhat distracting to notice that the main storyline detailing the events of this family's encounter in the woods is sometimes interrupted by the true-crime story about the events which are over-the-top dramatization about her as if what's going on is common knowledge. The way it turns that setup into the full twist around gives this a kind of odd tone that really undermines the twist by giving it away from the beginning ruins a lot of what's going on. As well as the slightly abrupt running time that could've offered a bit more detailing the purpose of the group and what they're about, these here are all that hold this back.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and underage smoking.

Apparently this film underwent heavy re editing just before release. As such it suffers with a nonsense story . The basic premise is a family of four along with a friend of he daughter travel to a remote cabin in the woods with the promise of the areas holistic properties . Once there they seemingly discover an unconscious woman in the snow, and take her back which leads to dire supernatural consequences. On the plus side, it's beautifully shot. The lighting , camera work , sound design and music are all top notch. It's quickly paced and gets straight into the action. There are some truly creepy creature designs, practical gore and violent kills. The cast does a mostly good job, with one notable exception of a scene where the mother deals with whats happened to her family . On the negative side, the film does a poor job of guiding the audience about whats going on in regards to the supernatural elements. Characters just seem to show up out of nowhere, very little or no explanation of what creatures are, their purpose or what they are actually needing victims for. We get a brief exposition dump in regards to Barbara Crampton's character. Also a pet peev of mine, is where at the or near the beginning of a movie, it will show you scenes of what happens at the end of the story and then goes back in time and tell the story via a kind of flashback. It completely undercuts tension as you already know the fate of most characters, and therefore you are just waiting for them to die. This movie kind of does that , by having scenes involving a true crime style TV show giving you the 'official' version of whats happened. Even though events play out differently in the movie compared to whats shown on this faux TV show , it still reveals characters fates and therefore the same issue. I feel in an attempt to be clever the film makers have done themselves an injustice, and would have benefited in telling the story in a more traditional narrative and spent more time setting up more context for whats going on. However what we do see on screen is well done and great effects and shot really well

I saw the movie in Chicago, after they edited the film. The movie cuts back and forth between what really happened to the family in the cabin and a reality TV true crime program about the deaths. The reality TV part was reduced, which was probably a good idea. The supernatural aspect of the movie isn't very clear, they need to flesh that out with some additional scenes. It's only 80 minutes long, so that is feasible.