WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

a_baron If you go down to the woods today you will find - an angry bear? a Sasquatch? something even worse? A night-time massacre to start with.This ultra-low budget slightly off-beat horror film lacks nothing in the originality department, but best give it a miss if you prefer happy endings. Mr and Mrs Not-So-Newly-Weds decide to go on a camping trip before he goes on the road for six months with his gee-tar. When they get there, strange things happen. That night a group of rednecks start making a big noise with their guns, then an even bigger noise with their screams. Something has attacked them, something that is incredibly strong and is as happy in the trees as on the ground.Our hero and his missus save one of the guys, who has a severely injured leg. This turns out to be a case of no good deed goes unpunished, but at least he tells them what is going on. Out there are creatures or at least entities from before the White Man came who are intent on doing something to pregnant women in connection with an ancient ritual. Guess who is pregnant and hasn't told her husband?You need know no more at this point, but expect the unexpected.

dcarsonhagy "Arbor Demon" weaves a tale of disappearances, secrets, legends, and "there's-something-in-them-thar-woods" horror. A husband and his wife, who is harboring a deep secret, go on a camping trip to celebrate their anniversary. During their journey through the woods, it would seem something is following them. During their first night, they hear some ominous noises...as well as shots fire. They think nothing of it, and it is on their second night the horror really begins. It would appear the rabble-rousers have move dangerously close to their campsite and are firing major sized weapons in their direction. It is also while spying on their "neighbors," the couple witness the total destruction of the other campsite.It was then the movie just about lost me...due to stupidity. Had the director been smart, he should have left this story to the couple; what exactly was going on and what was the wife's big secret she was willing to take to the grave with her. Instead, they had to cock it all up with a backstory involving one of the rowdy rebels (played by Jake Busey). The movie is rated "R" for minimal violence and language. 50/50 call on this one. It's not the worst picture you'll ever see, but it could have bee so much better.

bournemouthbear Arbor Demon (2016)It's not often the case that I am presented with a title to review that I know very little about in advance, especially in this age of media saturation, but with Arbor Demon I knew zilch. However, as I fancied a change from the wodge of zombie flicks I had been inflicted with of late, I took comfort in the presence of the word 'demon' in the title and stuck it on. Initially Arbor Demon played like yet ANOTHER in the other currently over-saturated sub-genre of found-footage but fortunately it was not to be, and whilst far from perfect Arbor Demon made for a refreshing change and was all the welcome for simply offering something different and being confident enough to successfully pull it off.Young couple Dana and Charles (Fiona Dourif and Kevin Ryan) go camping at his insistence that doing so would afford them the opportunity reconnect with each other. You wouldn't guess that any reconnecting was necessary from the set-up but apparently it is (I suppose there wouldn't be a camping trip otherwise and a rather short empty movie being the result). Dana is pregnant and keeping the news a secret from Charles, the reason? Charles has told her that they aren't the sort of couple that have children. As the film opened with a heavily pregnant woman being pursued through woodland, before something unseen closed in on her, it would appear that something similar may happen for Dana later in the woods, given that she too is expecting.After a bunch of rowdy bikers/hunters are wiped out by something unseen Dana and Charles find themselves trapped within the tight confines of their tent. They are soon joined by a wounded man Sean (Jake Busey), the only survivor of the bloody attack. During their conversation with the rather obnoxious Sean, our young couple learn more about what maybe lurking outside the flimsy trappings of their tent and fortunately for us it's as much a surprise for us as it is for the characters making Arbor Demon a superior creature feature.For a genre critic, who sometimes feels that he has seen it all before, Arbor Demon (originally entitled as Enclosure) made for a welcome relief from the norm. It reminded a little of 1990's The Guardian, not tonally or quality-wise fortunately, but more in the respect that it's a horror story tying into nature. Director Patrick Rea, along with co-writer Michelle Davidson, prove rather heavy-handed with the exposition and early nods as to what may come, but otherwise both have succeeded in delivering something unique in a marketplace afraid to deliver outside of the established comfort zone.

putrescent_stench Just saw this at the theater. Went in with pretty low expectations, as I hadn't heard any buzz about this film (so many other promising horror films coming soon - Get Out, A Cure for Wellness, The Belko Experiment, a remake (or re-adaptation) of It, etc. There were only two other (fairly negative) reviews on IMDb, and I read a couple of other reviews (Dread Central and Kim Newman) that were lukewarm about it. The poster art makes the movie look generic and cheap. The premise sounds pretty simple and unoriginal - a couple stranded in the woods, facing some unknown menace. But I'm glad I gave it a chance. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. It's not a "great" film, overly cerebral, emotional, gory, or overly anything. However, there were no moments that particularly bothered me, and all the elements - atmosphere, music, acting, tension - work pretty well together.Dana (Fiona Dourif) and Charles (Kevin Ryan) play a married couple who love each other but have some tensions, such as Charles about to embark on a three-month tour with his band. To celebrate their two-year anniversary and spend some time together before Charles hits the road, they decide to go camping. They soon find disagreements flaring - and to make matters worse, a group of drunk hunters parties and fires off guns at night nearby. But the hunters aren't their only worry, as a mysterious creature quickly dispatches with most of them, leaving only one, Sean (Jake Busey), alive. They rescue him, holing up together in their tent, only to find that Sean might be just as much, if not a greater, threat than the monster outside the tent.The addition of Sean is a brilliant move, as I'm not sure if this would have been as enjoyable without his character, or without Busey's effectively creepy performance. This has the internal-tension-while-under-siege-by-external-threat trope that is pretty common for horror movies (and is there a shorthand name for this? if not, there should be). Everything from Night of the Living Dead to last year's The Monster and Blair Witch relies on it, and I'm a sucker for it. There's not much of a unique take on it here, but it uses those conventions competently. Most good horror is pretty simple in premise; once you get too complicated, you run the risk of ruining the mood. This film knows what it is - a monster-romp-in-the-woods movie - and doesn't try to pretend to be anything more.I'm not sure what to think about the "monster" here, either in its nature or in its visual design. It is strange, not especially scary-looking, and it's hard not to say more without spoiling the film. There's not much explanation for it, although there is a supposed connection to a Native American story told by Sean's "crazy grandma Millie Ray," which sort of makes sense based on what happens, and sort of not.In short, this film is fun if you can just sit back and not think about it too much. It's also a plus if you like the woods as a setting and the above-mentioned siege-type narrative. 7/10 (maybe generous, but for what this film is trying to be, it deserves it).