DESOLATION (2017-I)

Studio:       IFC Midnight
Director:    Sam Patton
Writer:       Matt Anderson, Michael Larson-Kangas
Producer:  Kim Patton, Lauren Bates, Mara Barr, Sam Patton
Stars:     Jaimi Paige, Alyshia Ochse, Claude Duhamel, Toby Nichols

Review Score:

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Summary:

A camping trip into remote woods turns deadly when a mother, her son, and best friend encounter a mysterious hiker.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Accompanied by her best friend Jenn, Abby takes her 13-year-old son Sam on a hike into remote woods to scatter the ashes of her deceased husband Michael. A hooded hiker with sunglasses and a walking stick begins stalking the trio throughout their trek.

Over weed and wine while camping at night, Abby confides in Jenn about her difficulty moving past Michael’s death. The women notice an odd backpack left against a nearby tree, but go to sleep thinking the marijuana merely made them paranoid.

The women see that the backpack is gone the next morning. Sam spots the hiker watching them from a distance and remarks that he saw the strange man the previous day too. When the trio confronts the hiker on their trail again later, they hide until he eventually passes by them.

Abby, Jenn, and Sam make camp again. Before going to sleep, the women discuss Jenn’s desire for motherhood.

During the night, Abby is woken by the sound of recorded music in the distance. Abby screams frantically for her friend when she realizes Jenn is missing.

When dawn breaks, Abby insists on leaving to get help, even though Sam wants to search for Jenn. Abby and Sam discover that the hiker stole their food. Abby looks at a map and plots an off-trail path to a campground, hoping to find people there. After another encounter with the hiker, who has Jenn’s watch attached to his walking stick, Sam expresses frustration with his mother for continuing to treat him like a child.

Abby and Sam camp for the night. Sam falls asleep while keeping watch, allowing the hiker to abduct Abby. With Abby unconscious, the hiker ties her up with rope and pulls out one of her teeth using pliers.

Recorded music wakes Sam. Suddenly bleeding from his nose, Sam searches for Abby and finds her at the hiker’s campsite. Sam recognizes Jenn’s mutilated corpse hanging upside down before cutting his unconscious mother loose from her restraints.

Unable to wake Abby, Sam runs and hides when the hiker comes after him. Abby regains consciousness and escapes the camp while the hiker searches for Sam.

By the light of day, Sam and Abby continue searching for each other while avoiding the hiker. Abby makes it to the campground, but finds it deserted. She also finds a car, but it has no keys inside.

Sam confronts the hiker and sprays him with bear repellent. Abby hears Sam shouting for her and they reunite. Abby realizes her son is resourceful and reliable when he maps out a potential pathway for them to follow.

By feigning sleep, Abby and Sam lure the hiker to their campfire that night and attack him with sharpened sticks and a pocketknife that belonged to Sam’s father. The trio battles back and forth until Sam ends up on top of the hiker after stabbing him. Sam beats the hiker’s head with a rock repeatedly until Abby pulls him off.

Abby and Sam recover the following morning. They find the keys to the car at the campground in the hiker’s backpack, but the vehicle does not start. Snickering at their continued misfortune, Abby and Sam return to the woods to find their way out on foot.

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Click here for Culture Crypt's review of David Moscow's 2017 voyeur thriller titled "Desolation."

Review:

Abby and her 13-year-old son Sam are still struggling with the unexpected death of Sam’s father Michael.  Abby’s idea to honor her late husband involves trekking to a remote woodland trail where Michael used to hike.  With her best friend Jenn coming along for emotional support, Abby hopes scattering Michael’s remains in the place he loved most might bring her and Sam some cathartic closure.

Unfortunately, a hooded hiker with reflective sunglasses and a walking stick has a far less serene agenda.  It starts with Sam noticing the stone-still mystery man observing them from a distance.  It escalates when the women find a strange backpack oddly positioned near their campsite.  Things hit a fever pitch when the hiker finally makes a forward move to turn the trio’s trip into a terrifying fight for their lives.

“Desolation” doesn’t necessarily need any more story than that, though it does need more suspense to sharpen its edge.  Director Sam Patton squeezes every drop of plot from a trim script by Matt Anderson and Michael Larson-Kangas.  They collectively have the basic strokes down pat, yet their movie comes up short in creating a clever hook to set it apart in the woodland thriller subgenre.

“Desolation” runs its finger around the rim on a number of half-full, half-empty glasses.  Depending on whose eye goes to the microscope, a positive and/or a negative can be seen simultaneously in any given element.

The movie plays a lot like a single scene from a “Friday the 13th” film, except extended to feature length and including only three potential victims being stalked by a silent madman who isn’t wearing a mask.  Of course, there isn’t a whole lot of substance in such a setup.  Still, something “Desolation” does right, and does rather well, is stoke the vibe of a 70s slasher/survival film without actually being a throwback homage or period piece.  There is subtleness in the front credits font, style of cutting, and slight fade to its look, as if the film is approaching the first stage of vinegar syndrome, that puts a bit of the “Deliverance” backwoods behind the setting.

Leading ladies Jaimi Paige and Alyshia Ochse ride a second seesaw that can be taken two ways.  The charismatic camaraderie between both women reads as if they have genuinely been best friends for years.  Their conversations are written organically, portrayed honestly, and their good-natured charm shapes sympathetic characters from authentic moments of interaction.

The issue is anyone who cannot get into their banter will find it a bother waiting for bloody action to supplant it.  Abby and Jenn’s fireside chats about mourning and motherhood, even when lightened by the puff of a joint or well-timed ribbing, comprise a bulk of first act content.  It’s an appreciated effort to generate people worth investing in, even though their expository chatter doesn’t stop once their sisterly bond is established.

Sam also gets emotional backbeats.  His limited dialogue is less disposable, though more frustrating due to the sullen rebelliousness dominating his demeanor.  Sam’s attitude isn’t totally obnoxious, but he does consider going over that cliff.

On the other side of the faceoff, the hiker has two sides to his coin too.  There is a “The Strangers” quality in the quiet way he stands stoically at a distance, showing no outward indication of insidious intentions aside from an unsettling stance.  However, he also looks like a mere demented derelict, ranking him low on the list of iconic antagonists conducting cat-and-mouse chases in horror movies.

At only 75-minutes, “Desolation” is a low-risk investment for a one-time watch of sufficient killer-among-the-trees chills.  Lean scope means it won’t make much more of a mark than that.  With more meat to the material, the movie might not have to stretch itself through slow-to-start early scenes or belabored foreshadowing, such as coming in for close-ups on a pocketknife obviously planned for critical play later.  This is still a fine first effort for Sam Patton and company.  Hopefully his second outing adds unique oomph.

Review Score:  55

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