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Buffalo police officer Megan (Sadeghian) is a proficient officer but suffers from a lack of confidence after she accidentally shoots her colleague, which causes a lot of collateral damage. In order to snap her out of it, partner Jeremy (Johnson) takes her with another couple on a camping trip during the weekend to Upstate New York. Things take a terrifying turn when they witness the drug dealer execution conducted by the sheriff, Preacher (Kennedy), and his death squad. Now these four campers are a nuisance to Preacher, as he tries to eliminate them by cutting off their only means of escape, sending in hordes of hunters who are offered a bounty of $10,000 for each victim. It is quite obvious, courtesy of Megan, that it won’t be easy, and pity is not something that will be in abundance.
Knowing your audience’s expectations makes it imperative to get the execution right. Here, your results are somewhat of a mixed bag, and I’m being very kind with that phrase. The best thing the film had going for it was Sadeghian in the lead. If the poster is anything to go by, she could have been a better Lara Croft than Alicia Vikander (now back when Lara still used guns). With just a single glance at the screen, she makes herself the center of focus. The villains are, unfortunately, comparably poor: most of the time, they are the biggest threat to themselves – deliberately or, in one eye-roll-worthy scene, accidentally. There is a political undertone here too, which seems all the more dubious given the topic of the film.
It’s clear that the most significant issue is the manner in which the film showcases its deficiencies and the inconsistent action sequences it depicts. A convenience store shootout comes to mind: there isn’t even a packet of chips out of place. A “villain” who is gently “knocked out” by a stone that is slightly bigger than a pebble. The heroine is supposedly being pursued by a random helicopter, while the nearby trees are completely still. Bad guys (and girls) whose stupidity is only outdone by their lack of aim. Realistic bullet wounds. The list goes on and on. On the other hand, the veteran actress Lynn Lowery did considerately help the film as a local who has little regard for Sheriff Preacher, which I found rather commendable. In a movie that constantly borders on self-parody, she has a soothing effect on the overall scenario which in fact makes it more believable.
Lamberson utilizes the wilderness locales decently. Narrow canyons in particular provide a mazelike setting that the hunters and hunted move through. But good elements the last knife fight between Megan and Preacher is also highly kinetic and never seems to outlive its duration before some other element shows up to break you out of your immersion. I’d been waiting for this to show up on a streaming service for some time. Suffice it to say, it has and it fell some way short of my expectations, and I definitely should not have had my hopes up.
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