Indigenous (2015)
Starring Zachary Soetenga, Lindsey McKeon, Sofia Pernas
Directed by Alastair Orr
Those silly American touristy kids of ours… will they NEVER learn? If they’re not off wandering the streets of some third world country being yanked into darkened alleyways, then they’re getting hammered drunk and become the medical experiment of some wealthy (and deranged) former practitioner of bodily dissection. What I’m getting at is, no matter how you slice it, when these bored, alcoholic, oversexed young adults cross international waters to party down, someone ain’t comin’ back!
The latest disclaimer for keeping your sightseeing butts back in the States is directed by Alastair Orr, and the title is Indigenous, which hit VOD services on December 8th. It just happens to follow a group of American backpackers who find themselves DEEP in the Panamanian jungle and are therefore stalked by the legendary Chupacabra. The setup is nothing that we all haven’t seen before: Your insanely spoiled, morally bereft twenty-somethings booze it up until the dawn cracks and, after the hangovers have subsided, decide to hit the lush, green labyrinth for some excitement.Before long, the sun begins to set, and our moronic band of excursionists find themselves sitting ducks for a beast that hasn’t been seen or heard from for ages, much less believed to even be true.
I’ll admit that when the film immediately began, and I was visually held hostage by the stomach-churning exploits of “found footage,” my hopes started to swirl, but after a short time the movie turned a very large corner and abandoned the first-person shaky-cam format and solidified itself with its cinematography – nice touch, fellas.
The down side, you ask? Well, unfortunately this really isn’t anything that we haven’t seen in the past – jungle scares, people getting slaughtered, dissension among the ranks, all topped off by a creature that just doesn’t pose much of a cinematic scare factor. All in all, it tallies up to a movie that potentially could be enjoyed by a real creature-feature set, but for others who are looking for some true horror, they might be better skipping the jungle and opting for a trip to Disney World… now THAT place is straight-up frightening.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
