Powerful

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

RELEASED IN 2014 and directed by Alastair Orr, "Indigenous" covers events in Panama when five college-age youths vacation there for some fun in the sun. Things go awry when they visit a beautiful waterfall in a forbidden area of the jungle. This is a professionally made monster-in-the-forest flick with a competent no-name cast highlighted by gorgeous Panamanian locations and winsome Laura Penuela in a bikini. Precious Lindsey McKeon is another highlight on the female front. My only problems are that (1.) the plot's hackneyed, particularly bringing to mind "The Last Tribe" (2009), which is marginally better in some ways. Other flicks come to mind, like "Touristas" (2007) and "The Ruins" (2008), which are superior to the other two. (2.) There's no depth in the plot: This is a monster movie focusing on partying youths getting chased in the forest by savage creatures and that's it. As such, the film's not very compelling despite the horror and thrills. On the bright side, the last act throws in an unexpected curve ball and shows that the movie wasn't micro-budget. Another positive is that this is arguably the best and most realistic chupacabra flick out there (keeping in mind that I've only seen four such movies). Speaking of which, 'chupacabra' is a Spanish word, which literally means "goat-sucker" (from chupar "to suck" and cabra "goat"). There are two varieties of this cryptozoological beast: (1.) a reptile-like creature with leathery/scaly greenish-gray skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back; and (2.) a hairless form of canine with a pronounced spinal ridge and prominent eye sockets, fangs, and claws. "Indigenous" interestingly features neither of these, although the creatures come closer to the first description, I suppose. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 26 minutes was shot in Panama. WRITER: Max Roberts. GRADE: B-/C+ (5.5/10)

There are a lot of positives about this film; specifically the way its shot and written, especially in its initial tease of being a found footage film before abandoning that idea, while holding onto some aspects of modern social media to move the plot forward.This film is smart, but perhaps a little too smart for its own good as it ends up cramming in a lot of what it wants its audience to see and understand without much signposting, which can lead to some confusion and overall apathy towards the characters. For instance the film seems to want you to really care that one character owns a restaurant, but I am still not really sure why. It is reminiscent of DeadMary, another smartly written film with a great concept, but takes too long showing you characters to try to make you identify with them and care about what happens to them, whilst somehow not managing to achieve this aim. Instead what could have been laid out in a couple of short and simple scenes in the first five minutes takes around half an hour and by then you have given up actually trying to remember who these people are and what their relationships are to each other.Overall though this is an enjoyable, if slow starting, monster flick that attempts to play with its audience, to at least some success, and is definitely worth a watch for any fan of modern horror.

Five friends meet in Panama for a vacation. While partying like your stereotypical back- packers, they hear from Carmen, a native, stories about a beautiful waterfall deep in the jungle. Ignoring the warnings of Carmen's friend, they set off to find the waterfall. When they reach it, the group discovers that the stories about a chupacabra (mythical creature, it's name meaning to rip off far better film) are true, and it has developed a taste for humans....I've always thought that it was easier to review a bad film rather than a good one, because to rant, is to perform erratic poetry about the terrible aspects of a film.Now, whilst this film is nothing more than a horrible rip off of Neil Marshall's terrific horror, it's just too boring and too full of itself to get angry about the whole thing.What made it worse was that the makers start the film with a found footage excerpt, and then the story starts just like any other back-packer in peril film, and by the time they decide to refuse to heed to the warnings, you find yourself easily siding with the creature (or creatures as the editing is leading you to believe).The cast are awful, they all split up several times to,have a bit of cheeky cheeky, and before you know it, we get the old 'shush.....did you hear that?' And '(insert name)......is that you?', just like every other lazy horror film that has been made since the year dot, and it's becoming increasingly more punishing having to sit through dross like this to get to something worthwhile.On the plus side, the trees that are on screen are giving us oxygen, and the creature isn't terribly designed, but everything else is terrible. Especially when they try to be clever at the end and make the narrative national news.Avoid.

Indigenous offers the well-known concept of lost tourists on an exotic location where they meet hostile entity. It highly resembles other fiction movies or even miniseries from Discovery channel. To its credit, it gives nice visual of the setting and there is effort to produce horror, but ultimately it is a straightforward and tired endeavor.The story might work to its advantage as audience gets exactly what they expect. There's little diversity here, even in recent year there are several movies with same theme. A few college kids take vacation in a beautiful place, and then they are inexplicably going to ominous site even though there are plenty of visible warnings.Visual is pretty good, the use of location is commendable, although when the encounter happens during nighttime, it reverts to jittery cam. The movie is shot mostly on third person, so it shouldn't encounter this issue like many mockumentary movies. Fortunately, the practical effect works well and it doesn't shy away from displaying the monster instead of maintaining blurry shots.Script does what it needs to, though surprisingly the actors perform admirably. They mostly look genuine, either through occasionally adequate presentation of the horror or the acting itself. In latter half, the movie opts for different gimmick and tries to broaden the scale, a decent effort but not entirely novel.Indigenous is exactly one would expect from lost tourist horror theme, it's far from innovative, but it might just be sufficient in the small scope.