Ok, so full disclosure. I found out that Becky Ann Baker is in this movie. When I saw her in the 1999 mini-series of Stephen King's Storm of The Century, I had a little fan crush on her. Since then, I've seen her in Law and Order and as well as The Good Wife. This movie also has her real-life husband, Dylan Baker who was also in The Good Wife among other things. I also liked Beth Dover as Linda in Orange is the New Black. With those three in this movie, I thought I'd give it a shot.
Kate (Beth Dover) suffers a traumatic and violent attack. This is shown later in flashbacks. It is never explained why this happened or given any context; it just did. Kate decides that she must get away from it all as she tells her girlfriend Nikkie (Ta'Rea Campbell): "I see his face everywhere." She talks Nikkie into calling her brother Earl (Ato Essandoh) who is an Idaho Dept. Of Land Management Forest station supervisor. Kate and Nikkie go to Idaho and meet Nikkie's brother. Kate begs Earl to give her a chance to be a forest service fire spotter volunteer. Earl has a cold sneaking fear that she can't handle it but relents.
Earl takes Kate to her 25' x 25' mountain top fire spotters tower where she will be on duty for 3 months. There is no running water no bathroom (well an ole style out-house on the ground) and nothing around her except an awesome mountain top vista. Earl leaves Kate in charge shaking his head and telling himself this is not going to work. On her first evening in the tower, Kate takes in the view, stretch's out her arms, and heaves a big sigh. Perfect she says. Yeah, RIGHT.
For the first weeks Kate tries to do her best, she tries to keep to the routine laid down with a finger wag by Earl and does OK. Then, well, she starts to hear and see things.
Kate meets her neighbor on the other side of the hill an old widow guy named Reggie (Dylan Baker) who tells her he used to be a fire spotter too. He tells her "You get used to the quiet" (then points to his head) "But it's still noisy".
Kate sees some hikers passing through, makes some more mistakes and Earl tells the station that she has got to come down from up there. Meanwhile Kate meets a hiker Bertha (Becky Ann Baker.) Bertha asks Kate if she can use her out-house and the two get to talking.
OK from this point the movie is a SLOW burning spiral of tension, heavy atmosphere, dread, a slide into madness followed by dead animals with maggots, dead people with bullet holes and axes sticking out of them and things not how they seem.
The movie does a decent job of creating the tension and dread but tends to lose its way about two-thirds through. Granted there is only so much you can do to hold up that atmosphere without revealing all the plot twists and turns. You can tell where everything is going if you watch closely enough and pay attention but only takes so long. It's not complicated.
Everyone did a good job with their parts. Beth Dover was believable and looked comfortable with the material. Dylan Baker was right for the "Old Guy down the hill" who you didn't quite know what to make of. And Becky Ann (Yay) was good too with just the right amount of "creepy". What I really didn't like was the obvious way that all of the characters were introduced as to make them look like that had just killed someone's dog. They had almost a comic shifty eye about them. Mostly when they were around Kate. They all seemed to look at her sideways. It was a little over the top for me.
The ending. It gets VERY violent and VERY bloody ......rapidly. The pieces start to fit and it doesn't take long. That being said the movie kind of, well, shows you the madness and horror, (and it is) and just leaves things in the air. I won't spoil anything but it ends like it began with no wrap-up. Or explanation to what happened "after" it happens.
I will give this a 6 out of 10 not bad but i have seen better.
Kate (Beth Dover) suffers a traumatic and violent attack. This is shown later in flashbacks. It is never explained why this happened or given any context; it just did. Kate decides that she must get away from it all as she tells her girlfriend Nikkie (Ta'Rea Campbell): "I see his face everywhere." She talks Nikkie into calling her brother Earl (Ato Essandoh) who is an Idaho Dept. Of Land Management Forest station supervisor. Kate and Nikkie go to Idaho and meet Nikkie's brother. Kate begs Earl to give her a chance to be a forest service fire spotter volunteer. Earl has a cold sneaking fear that she can't handle it but relents.
Earl takes Kate to her 25' x 25' mountain top fire spotters tower where she will be on duty for 3 months. There is no running water no bathroom (well an ole style out-house on the ground) and nothing around her except an awesome mountain top vista. Earl leaves Kate in charge shaking his head and telling himself this is not going to work. On her first evening in the tower, Kate takes in the view, stretch's out her arms, and heaves a big sigh. Perfect she says. Yeah, RIGHT.
For the first weeks Kate tries to do her best, she tries to keep to the routine laid down with a finger wag by Earl and does OK. Then, well, she starts to hear and see things.
Kate meets her neighbor on the other side of the hill an old widow guy named Reggie (Dylan Baker) who tells her he used to be a fire spotter too. He tells her "You get used to the quiet" (then points to his head) "But it's still noisy".
Kate sees some hikers passing through, makes some more mistakes and Earl tells the station that she has got to come down from up there. Meanwhile Kate meets a hiker Bertha (Becky Ann Baker.) Bertha asks Kate if she can use her out-house and the two get to talking.
OK from this point the movie is a SLOW burning spiral of tension, heavy atmosphere, dread, a slide into madness followed by dead animals with maggots, dead people with bullet holes and axes sticking out of them and things not how they seem.
The movie does a decent job of creating the tension and dread but tends to lose its way about two-thirds through. Granted there is only so much you can do to hold up that atmosphere without revealing all the plot twists and turns. You can tell where everything is going if you watch closely enough and pay attention but only takes so long. It's not complicated.
Everyone did a good job with their parts. Beth Dover was believable and looked comfortable with the material. Dylan Baker was right for the "Old Guy down the hill" who you didn't quite know what to make of. And Becky Ann (Yay) was good too with just the right amount of "creepy". What I really didn't like was the obvious way that all of the characters were introduced as to make them look like that had just killed someone's dog. They had almost a comic shifty eye about them. Mostly when they were around Kate. They all seemed to look at her sideways. It was a little over the top for me.
The ending. It gets VERY violent and VERY bloody ......rapidly. The pieces start to fit and it doesn't take long. That being said the movie kind of, well, shows you the madness and horror, (and it is) and just leaves things in the air. I won't spoil anything but it ends like it began with no wrap-up. Or explanation to what happened "after" it happens.
I will give this a 6 out of 10 not bad but i have seen better.