So i rewatched this today with a very different eye. Since getting my film degree which entailed lots of actual filmmaking practical work- and of course my own work as a job since then- i'm noticing way more faults in this film. For one thing you see things like an open field, a main road and even a poorly maintained carpark through the trees as they whent on which really gives you a feeling that they found a small patch of trees by a canal and just filmed walking it up and down in different directions which sort of cheapens the whole "the actors spent 8 days in isolation with little food" mystique given to the films production process.
That and there are little bits of unprofessional hiccups throughout. I don't wanna list a bunch because honestly they wreck some scenes but the i'll point one out as an example. When mike runs through the house at the end he rounds a corner and stops by a window to talk to heather as some dude is pointing in the window with a laser pointer. some websites say it was a douchebag kid who snuck on set during the night filming, some say it was the director showing where they wanted mike to run to. Either way this just smacks of unprofessional filmmaking. The house is the only true 'set' in the film with a definable perimeter and blind spots and should be easily controlled by the crew of a film no matter how early or low budget in a film makers career. You keep a watch around the outside so nobody can reach it without you knowing, let alone get in shots and if its to guide an actor- its a damn house, a house with writing on the walls, theres so many ways to do a preemptive walk about to show them the route to travel. i mean marble hornets did this but a movie that cost 35k cant?
That said i still enjoy it, but its never quite sure what to make of itself. At some points it is very clearly locals messing with them, as foreshadowed with 'goddamn kids never learn' from the fishing locals near the start, but then at others they hear babies screaming, little girls laughing and a huge group smacking the tent at once when there is nobody there. i dont think its for the sake of ambiguity either, i just think the directors did not know quite what to make of it.
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