Heading out for a weekend in the woods, a group of friends arrives at a secluded cabin where they soon come across a mysterious stranger who joins them, unaware that the trip is about to be crashed by the emergence of a strange entity around the lake that begins to target them one-by-one.
Overall, there was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the strongest aspects to this one is the rather strong build-up here that manages to make the group immensely fun and enjoyable. There's no drama or urbane secrets to be had from each other but are instead treated to a wholly enjoyable and fun starting point as they are fun to be around, joking around, offering comebacks to each other and playfully teasing that gives a sense of genuine friendship between everyone. That, in turn, manages to add a strikingly enjoyable quality to the horror scenes later on. The build-up from these early scenes is just as good, going from absolutely stellar scenes featuring a hypnotic quality to the group being affected by the atmosphere of the lake, creating not only a haunting quality to these scenes but likewise furthering the sexualized air created here. As that slowly turns into the discovery of something not quite human being in the woods with them, not only subtle or physical which are all possible due to the fine start this one works from. While this work is incredibly well-done, the strong poetic nature of these scenes does make it hard to fire out the general sense of what's going on. As characters seem to shift between being possessed one minute and acting like they're normal the next, the further throws confusion upon things as we try to figure out the whole plotline involving the group coming under the spell of whatever's living in the woods surrounding the lake which seems to feed on sexual energy. That is furthered along by the surreal, dialogue-less final ten minutes where they seem to be pleasing a gloopy, pulsating blob of some kind, yet without words to fill in the blanks, this becomes somewhat frustrating. That factor does lead to the lone true flaw in the lack of horror action. Although the group is slowly becoming possessed by a strange force living in that area, its intentions are never remotely threatening as the general atmosphere is kept incredibly light. Instead of being stripped away of their humanity and forcing everyone else to do so against their will or meeting their end via a ravenous, blood-crazed beast, the seemingly utopian based nature of whatever's in the lake doesn't provide as much of a jolt as it should've since there's a sense of harmony and euphoria experienced rather than fear and revulsion. As that could combine with the slow, deliberate pace to throw some people off, it's the only issue to be had with the film.
Rated Unrated/NC-17: Full Male and Female Nudity, Continuous Sexual Activity, Language, Violence and drug use.
