Preservation (2014)
Starring Wrenn Schmidt, Pablo Schreiber, Aaron Staton
Directed By Christopher Denham
Three people on a hunting trip they technically shouldn’t have been on in the first place are stalked by murderous psychopaths – now if you read that before you pushed the play button, you wouldn’t have even gotten that far before giving up, would you? In any event, Christopher Denham’s Preservation is a survival horror film that starts slow while dragging you up a steep incline, then cuts the brakes as you lunge with reckless abandon towards the finish line.
Its presentation is simplistic, but with a purpose – the feeling of serenity in the wooded confines quickly disappears as the instinct to endure takes over. Focusing on three main characters, the movie starts with a lengthy conversation between brothers Sean (Pablo Schreiber) and Mike (Aaron Staton) – Sean, who recently completed a long tour overseas while serving in the military, and younger brother Mike, who’s slightly on the weenie side of things. Along for the ride is Mike’s bride, Wit (Wrenn Schmidt), whose patience for her husband’s “always on the clock” mentality is wearing thin – his phone is constantly at his side, and Wit is not only hiding her displeasure at the current situation but also attempting to shield the inception of a new addition to the family. Yep, she’s knocked up. The first clue that this particular hunting trip is doomed is when the trio sees the large and commanding “closed” sign before the entrance to the wildlife preservation AND completely ignores it – now we’ve got trouble.
As the three set up camp and begin to settle in, we get a look at how the brothers have interacted through their younger years, and how they’ve grown apart since then, added to the feeling that Wit has taken to Sean’s “commando-like” attitude, and the feeling seems to be mutual. He watches her while she begins to change in her tent, and at one point boldly asks her when was the last time they had sex… gutsy indeed. After a late night for the three, upon waking up they notice something is wrong – now let me rephrase that, when I say “wrong,” I don’t mean, “Oh crap, my air mattress has sprung a leak.” I mean they all wake up with literally ALL of their belongings missing – clothes, food, water, their tents (yes, they had the tent they were sleeping in stolen), and even Sean’s dog has been pilfered by someone in the witching hour.
What follows is a shock, but definitely not something that a horror fan couldn’t have seen coming – the group is terrorized and now must fight their way out of these woods which act as a wide open prison. You can run far, but it seems as if you hit the wall before long, and this is how Denham intended it to be. Taking a small group of people who conceivably have their share of issues with each other and adding the log of delimitation to the fireplace simply makes this a nail-biter. If you’re looking for that “camping trip gone seriously awry” type of film, then Preservation is best suited for the fans that can appreciate a little run-and-gun fashioned horror. Recommended.
3 1/2 out of 5
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