First off I woud like to start with the positive parts of this movie. The cinematography is great, the filming locations are great and the acting is pretty OK as well. It's a slow burn and builds up characters.
The movie is about a family in Canada during the 80's or early 90's. They are living in a very remote cabin in the woods and live off the land. Basically they are living that 18th century life.
The father is presented as the ultimate survivalist, hunter and trapper, born in the woods. I mean, this guy could probably out-witt Rambo in the woods. He can do anything from howling like a wolf to lure them in to track any animal.
His relationship with his dauther is that he is raising a mini version of himself, teaching her everything he knows about hunting. And she seems to be a really good student, making us believe that she's quite capable even though she's only 12 or something.
The wife, even though she's been living with her husband remote in the woods for most of her life, doesn't know much about trapping or hunting at all, we find out she doesn't even know how to skin an anmial which is quite strange.
So the story gets tense when they discover a lone wolf that has come back to eat their food. They seem to be really scared of this wolf, but we don't really get to know why. The husband leaves to track down and kill the wolf, but stumbles onto a murder scene. Dead, female bodies in the middle of the woods. A obvious work of a sick serial killer.
Instead of calling the authorities, telling his wife and child about this, he return to his home, eats dinner, decides that he is going to hunt this serial killer himself using bear traps and such.
Here's one of the biggest plot holes. Why is he taking this decision. Is it because he doesn't want to involve authorities because they are living on the land illegally? Why does he leave his wife and dauther alone in a cabin when there's obviously a serial killer on the loose in the area? Why not even a warning to them (be extra careful, don't let any strangers in etc)
So the movie goes from getting us all worked up about that wolf, to be something else. We do get an encounter with the wolf, but the wife is seen just screaming at it and it runs away.
The wife finds a man wounded in the woods, take him inside and help him. It's quite obvious his story doesn't add up (where's the camera if he's a photographer?), he is seriously wounded and they are trying to explain that he needs a doctor, but he doesn't want to go to the car. Here's a suggestion. Leave him in the cabin, take the daughter to the car and drive to the town and inform the authorities and return with help. Instead they just stay in the cabin and try to catch the wolf instead? At several points the wife even leaves him with her dauther alone in that cabin.
We later find out that he killed the husband, and I believe this is probably the biggest plot holes of them all. How in God's name does this psycopath serial killer sneak up on the husband while he's waiting with traps laid out? He gets away with a cut on his leg but that's it.
And while the wife is being strangeled by the killer, why is her daughter doing nothing but scream? They build her character to be a capable survivalist herself, why doesn't she run and fetch her .22? It's later just assumed the killer kills her too, and it ends in some sort of revenge blood and gore fest.
This movie sure had potential, but there were too many major plot holes for me.
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