A strange, surreal...um, did I mention strange...movie that starts like a lost in the woods horror movie and transforms into something weirder, like a surreal horror movie inspired dream version of Beauty and the Beast. Not better, mind you, just weirder.
The story: four friends are driving through the woods when their cars gets a flat from a large spike in the road. They investigate and some get injured and one woman finds herself face to face with a strange creature -- a man cover with spikes who speaks in poetry -- who is turns out knew her and was/is in love with her. However, when she rejects him for her current, non-spike covered boyfriend the spike-guy becomes violent and she must find a way to escape and save her friends.
Was it good?
No. But is was oddly interesting and didn't feel like an empty headed, plot rehash of other movies which makes it a cut above a lot of the movies I watch. However, for "good" I want a movie I can recommend to people and unfortunately this one I just can't.
The story idea is interesting -- take the typical lost in the woods and hunted by a monster movie and transform it into a Beauty and the Beast type love story, adding a twisted love triangle. The problem here is that the love triangle didn't make sense. When it turns out she knows the creature (who used to be a normal guy seven years ago) it is the bizarre coincidence of all coincidences. I don't remember any reason given either to why he is now living in the forest and covered with spikes. Um, isn't that the sort of thing that needs to be explained? (Now I am a multitasker so maybe it's there and I missed it, but by then my mind was a-wanderin'.) So the crux of the story -- her relationship with spike-guy really comes out of nowhere and doesn't make a lot of sense.
The other problem is execution. The spike-guy likes to talk in weird wanna-be poetry, and for some reason when he starts talking like that the girl does to. Except it isn't good wanna-be poetry. It's like reading a bad version of Dr Seuss rhymes. And while the concept of this beauty and the beast story is interesting, the structure just isn't there -- it should be a love triangle, but there isn't much of a triangle. The girl is already kind of broken up from her boyfriend (he asked her to marry him and she refused...not a good sign) and it's not like you get a sense she is going to stay in the forest with spike guy. And, even worse from a writing perspective, the story doesn't explore anything within the love triangle -- why are we watching this? what is supposed to be interesting about THIS love triangle? Stories run on hope and fear, so what are we hoping for, what do we want to happen and what are we afraid will happen? There just isn't anything there.
So it's an interesting movie and it has some nice elements to it, but the story doesn't get into any interesting territory of the meat of the story (the love triangle) and some bad construction and the bad dialog means I can't recommend it. However, this is a movie that tries to do more than most of these indy films. If the writer/director can take this and improve they could produce compelling work in the future.
NOT RECOMMENDED
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