I nearly past on this dil because of the low rating (4.4 at that time). It could easily have fallen into a "horror" chick flick since the cast is all women with a few men to pull the story together. But it comes across gender neutral and I found the actions and stunts well done and believable. Filmed great and with and in outstanding outdoor scenary. Didn't hold to the normal Shockley horror scenes and the end was not really predictable. It entertains from beginning to very end. The character development is really well executed . The gist is four women go on multi day backpack venture led by a a 50+ year old woman therapist. The audience as well as the main chareaxter doesn't t know if she's got a hidden agenda and she's overconfident of her psychological and backpacking skills. When introduced to the newcomer and primary character, she say "nice to meet you Mary." To which Mary replies call me Dr. Mary or Doctor "LASTNAME". . Each of the 4 f"followers" have some deep trauma and as stuff starts happening the audience didn't know wWhether the odd stuff is pPart their trauma coming to the surface or there's something supernatural happening or maybe Dr. Mary is spiking the food with Peyote etc) as part of her therapy. . But other three members have done thr backpack Adventure before and are Dr. Mary's admiring acolytes. The film the begins with camper /newcomer engaged in a "dateline" level domestic quarrel. But the audience can't be sure if it was the last night just before the trip before . Or an earlier time. The only thing we can be sure of is that the wife wasn't killed since she is among the five.

In the opening scene, Derek comes home to Joy, and he is in a very foul mood. Later he gets very violent, kills her dog and strangles her. We flash six months forward, and Joy's good friend Carmen has her and Tara going on a women's retreat in the Canadian Rockies, where the leader, Dr. Dunnley says risk = growth. All the women have suffered great trauma and are working on getting it behind them. There are a number of things that really made this movie for me. For one thing, they sold, through acting, just how strenuous portions of the trip were. As a person who has done backing in mountain wilderness, I really appreciated that they seem to have their pack worn properly, and also didn't suddenly pull out things that they could not have carried in their packs. I find all too often movies of a similar nature fail that, as the actors have never done anything like that before, and they never research how things would be. Through most of the movie, the demons seemed to be from within their own traumas. Derek would often play with his lighter, and Joy seemed to feel she heard the clicks of the lighter as if she was being tracked. Others had their own demons to cope with. But near the end, a more terrifying demon is unleashed.

dark nature

At the outset of the movie, a conflict emerges, giving us hope that the film will at least meet our expectations. However, as the conflict unfolds, it becomes evident that this trendy approach offers nothing but vacuous and inconsequential dialogue, along with aimless pacing. Who is truly interested in watching the protagonists wander aimlessly? Unfortunately, the director seems to be fascinated by it. Overall, it is yet another sorrowful horror film centered around a wild recluse lurking in the forest, preying on unsuspecting victims. While it is challenging to sympathize with the characters, there is an undeniable desire to see "him" apprehend everyone swiftly. The cinematography lacks originality, with the cameraman failing to capture the raw human fear, the arduous struggle, and the inherent beauty of the surrounding woods.

No pun intended - the movie uses quite a few cliches to say the least. It is supposed to be empowering and if you suspend your disbelief I reckon this works well ... again not minding that it is quite on the nose on certain things. Not that those things do not exist in real life .. they do unfortunately. That said, trying to get rid of the past ... while going on a trip generally speaking is a good thing. Unless you the trip you take is this one right here of course. Suspense is there and if you go with the flow it can be an interesting and suspenseful watch. A low budget horror movie that has some (few) interesting ideas ...

This was an interesting mix of folk horror and creature feature as an almost cautionary tale about facing your demons and overcoming past traumas. It had some solid potential however because of some missteps in execution, landed pretty middle of the road for me. I thought the plot/concept was really interesting and was a foundation for something relatively different and pretty cool. They ended up negating a lot of their spook factor and intrigue by showing the "antagonist" like... WAY early and pretty much in full form. 25% of the time it was shown it looked creepy and dope. The other 75% it looked quite silly and drew me out of the moment. Regardless, there was still some pretty dope execution of sfx/makeup throughout. The two lead best friends were quite good and really kept me in the moment and engaged. The doctor was good and everyone else was on the not so convincing side. I do think they could have beefed up the story a bit more. Felt a little bit like a very long proof of concept. Despite this, as a whole I think this was pretty successful and certainly not a waste of time. Would recommend.

This is a bit derivative and low budget, but the feelings it generated about dread, the way abuse traps its victims, the horror of never being free of it or feeling that you are free . . .it was quite well done. There needed to be some more dialog between the characters about what they were each going through, and the depth of the friendship of the main two women needed some more fleshing out as well - but the movie signaled enough about each of them, showing, not telling, to keep me invested and interested in them. The central story, the reveal, is very satisfying and scary and the wilderness is beautiful and vast.

"Dark Nature" is a Canadian horror film written and directed by Berkley Brady in her directorial debut. The film stars Hannah Emily Anderson, Helen Belay, Madison Walsh, Roseanne Supernault, and Kyra Harper all of which you probably never heard of. The plot revolves around Joy, who is recovering from an abusive relationship. She joins her friend's therapy group on an isolated mountainous retreat. Led by a doctor with experimental methods, the group is soon forced to confront a monstrous entity and since this is a no-spoiler review this is the story in a nutshell. I would say as a low-budget first attempt, "Dark Nature" has some good things going for it. The actors doing a good job of looking scared, especially towards the end of the movie, and there is a good plot progression. Unfortunately due to low-budget filming, cringe dialogue, overuse of flashbacks and an anticlimactic ending it is really loses a lot of points in my book. The opening scene is surprisingly the worst offender in this entire movie, which is odd, since it should be the easiest one to film, inside an apartment (or a motel room or some sorts??) the dialogue is cringe and the camera work is horrendous. However it gets better later on and becomes somewhat watchable. Again, without any major special effects, no CGI and limited number of cameras, Brady manages to product a reasonable film minus some dubious editing cuts. However I felt the ending could use a closure epilogue. It's not that it ends on a note where "viewers can figure it out", it just ends without a closure to the main character Joy. The movie is fairly short (sub 90 mins) so I think a 3-4 minute epilogue could do this film a lot of good and maybe even elevate my score from a 4 to a 5. Considering everything this is one of those not fully-baked but watchable soft thrillers. My exact score is 44 / 100.

After seeing the low rating for this movie I was really surprised how much I liked it. I generally enjoy horror movies set in the wilderness and so I definitely had to check this one out. My expectations were rather low because of the rating but I went in with an open mind and by the end I was genuinely surprised. The movie starts off by introducing us to our main character and her trauma induced by her ex and while I am actually tired of this whole trauma theme because it's really overused in horror, I think that in this case it made sense and I was not turned off by it. After introducing us to the rest of the cast, our lead named Joy played by Hannah Emily Anderson keeps hearing her ex and even starts seeing him in the woods. She is sure that he is following them but other group members also see and hear things so the question is: Are they really followed by somebody or something? Honestly the movie really takes it's time before something happens and during that time you have to endure these characters talking about their past and getting to know each other. But towards the third act the movie really picks up momentum and goes into a direction I did not really expect. They are some great makeup effects and a decent amount of gore that I really didn't anticipate. While there are some character decisions that I didn't understand and probably only were made to serve the plot I enjoyed this movie overall and I think this low rating is not justified. Lower your expectations and give this one a try if you like horror movies set in the wildness. [6,5/10]

A trauma therapy group follows their quack doctor into the Canadian wilderness on a survivalist excursion for which none of them are remotely qualified. It's unclear what the point of the excursion is supposed to be since the doctor's explanations are pop psychobabble gibberish. The characters' lack of preparedness or an objective helps explain their subsequent bickering, complaining and idiotic decisions; but it also makes them frustratingly unsympathetic. Suffice it to say the gang of intrepid idiots soon find themselves isolated and stalked by a standard horror trope until the rushed and inevitable finale. The Ritual (2017) wasn't great but it did essentially the same thing first, better and with more relatable characters.