Testing fear and isolation for the future pioneer guide Unfitness is a mean thing. It is often the result of certain failed tests for strength and professionalism. Even if you just want to walk with the kids in the woods and read them scary stories for the night – prepare yourself properly. So says Isaac Kravit, in his debut showed how hard one troubled girl had when she decided to try herself as a camp counselor.
After half an hour of view
So far, history is very sad. We get acquainted with the heroine, realizing in absentia that she is the most typical type that can be stuck in such a film. Uncomplicated, terribly ordinary, with its “cockroaches” in the head. Victim. And so she is sent to a small island where you need to learn how to make a fire, fight off mosquitoes and find a common language with yourself. The island, of course, is endowed with a legend about some ghost in which no one really believes. For the first third of the session, there is not even a hint of the appearance of this ghost, but it is very funny that we got the heroine with humor. For sudden rustles in the bushes, she, being away from civilization, where you probably do not catch phone signals (and she also has only a camp radio), manages to say: “Now I will call the police.” Brilliant! Call me. Chip and Dale are in a hurry to help.
An hour later
The action became more cheerful, but the girl is still disappointing. The theme of her past flashes only occasionally, which makes it feel that flashbacks are not needed at all, since they do not complement anything. The actions of the future leader, meanwhile, are frankly absurd. Again, the behavior of the victim defeats common sense, and if at some point she is capable of clever action, then the next completely refutes her involvement in any clever actions, because, for example, using an ordinary piece of wood against someone who is twice as strong, cunning and cold-blooded is a shot from a bazooka by logic. The main villain emerges in time, adding a pinch of sharpness to the plot, but in itself, too, does not cause special feelings. The director completely does not know how to make of his characters something memorable, and the narrative, meanwhile, no matter how squirming, to a certain extent still tramples on the spot, afraid to go beyond the static wandering around the island.
After viewing
The finale dispels all small hopes to dust. I no longer want to make a discount on the dynamism that has emerged from anywhere, nor on camera attempts, nor on anything else. Because the story ends so corny that it better not have started. The point of such films, you know, at least in finding something new in the genre or very well to beat something old. Both require not only effort, but first of all emotional impulse. Isaac Kravit either does not indulge in such impulses, or is lazy to compose and shoot better than nothing. You think the villain and the girl will throw us a surprise at the end? No, relax. It was possible to use a bunch of intriguing techniques that could support the interest of the viewer. It was possible to prescribe the antagonist's motives in a more powerful way. It was possible to create a tougher, exciting, brilliant spectacle. If it weren't for fear. Maybe fear will ruin everything. Or maybe you should even start.
Isaac Kravit has no soul, no love, no longing, no pity in his film debut. Only a parody of certain stamps of the so-called “island thrillers”, and then in a minimal amount, because the rest is “water”, in which the unfortunate actress swims with the same suffering expression on her face, not understanding how she even managed to get into such a failed project.
I wouldn’t be so harsh and even a little angry if there were a couple of interesting scenes in the film. And so before us is a lazy fake with a beautiful poster, a completely indistinct plot, cardboard heroes and a lousy thriller base. During the session, you still try to find pros, but on the credits you finally renounce everything you saw.
2 out of 10