All Girls Weekend
Dark Mountain
USA 2015
produced by Alan Hanna, Lou Simon, Jeff Burdett for White Lotus Productions, Ash Films, Surewould Productions
directed by Lou Simon
starring Jamie Bernadette, Katie Carpenter, Gema Calero, Karishma Lakhani, Sharron Calvin, Michele Gourdine, Hannah Gourdine
written by Lou Simon, music by Michael Damon, visual effects by Jeff Burdett
review by Mike Haberfelner
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On a nice winter day, Dani (Katie Carpenter) takes her friends Gem
(Gema Calero), Stephanie (Karishma Lakhani), Annie (Sharron Calvin) and
cynic Nancy (Jamie Bernadette) on a hike through the woods on an unmarked
trail she claims to know like the back of her hand. Well, they make it to
the vantage point Dani wanted to show them, but on their way back ...
well, they can't find their way back, least of all Dani who gets on
everyone's nerves insisting they are not lost. Then Annie hurts her leg
severely and loses lots of blood, and later that night dies in an
abandoned cabin the girls stumble upon. The rest pushes on, but no matter
where they go they just seem to go in circles - until they happen upon a
small river and figure if they only follow it, they are bound to get
somewhere. Now there's a "fact" about the area they are in
that becomes apparent only by the by, and that's that it's cursed, ever
since an industrial plant destroyed all plantlife and wildlife in its
surroundings. And the fact that plantlife and wildlife has returned ...
well, that's part of the curse. Anyways, out girls make their way down the
river - to exactly that plant, where Stephanie dies mysteriously, Nancy
finds a severed hand, and Gem's fingers turn out to be frozen beyond
repair and have to be cut off on the spot. Later, their path is blocked
by a bear, and Nancy volunteers in lurig the bear off, something that goes
horribly wrong, so the other two girls have to push onwards on their own -
when it gradually becomes clearer this story is about more than just five
girls lost in the woods ... All Girls Weekend is an
enjoyably effective little shocker that might be a little diffuse when it
comes to its actual threat (at least until the finale that is), but at the
same time it's a very well-structured story that is brought to life by a
subtle directorial effort that gets the most out of its wintery
surroundings, and its very colourful cast of fleshed out characters
brought to life by a very solid cast of actors - especially the exchanges
between Jamie Bernadette and Katie Carpenter playing almost natural
antagonists are worth a mention here. And add to that many a well-placed
scene of shock and/or suspense and a few genuinely scary sequences, and
you've got yourself a pretty good genre movie!
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