Writer: Rupert Bryan, Ben Loyd-Holmes (Screenplay)
Starring: Jemma Bolt, Stephanie Siadatan, Lisa-Maria Long, Zara Phythian, Barabara Nedeljakova, Tamer Hassan, Ben Loy-Holmes, Shauna Macdonald
Plot: This film is about a group of women who go on a camping trip in British countryside after one of them (Kate) gets back from doing a tour in Afghanistan where she witnessed her boyfriends death. While out in the bush area they come across a group of guys who are also camping out. But it all goes from having a good time and enjoying themselves to a fight for their lives as they are soon being hunted by someone in the forest. Who will survive?
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Boring at Best
Story: The Hike starts as five friends Kate (Phythian), Torri (Nedeljakova), Ellie (Long), Leanne (Siadatan) and Charlie (Bolt) head off into the countryside for a weekend away to help Kate get over the loss of her boyfriend while she was serving in Afghanistan.
As the girls hike goes on they meet a string off different characters also out in the woods but when one of their own goes missing, it is up to Kate to protect her friends and make it out of the woods alive using all her training.
Thoughts on The Hike
Characters/Performance – Kate is meant to be a soldier that is grieving the loss of her partner but soon must go back into soldier mode to save her friends from the enemy within the woods. The rest of the girls are all very painfully generic and never look like they would ever go into the woods camping. The villains are also generic and while we get a tease of who it could be either way would not surprise.
Performance wise, this isn’t the best acted movie all around, we get what feels like completely fake conversation between the girls, and villain performance that just comes off boring. We also have two bigger names thrown into the mix to sell the movie who are barely even in a scene.
Story – The story is an easy follow, girls go down the woods and find themselves fighting for their lives from twisted rapist and murders, all in England, well I never. My problem with the story is we go for shock here by having member of the group killed without being able to put up a fight while the strongest member Kate is preparing herself for the battle, the story tries to force us into watching uncomfortable rape sequences that just don’t shock like ‘I Spit on your Grave’ and ends up just becoming forgettable.
Horror – The horror does work in places when you look at how people could find it hard to watch the subject matter we are seeing but otherwise it is just girls running in woods and guys looking to rape and murder them.
Settings – We are in the middle of the woods which is great for creating the isolation needed within the film.
Special Effects – The effects are used when it comes to the kills all look good for the film.
Final Thoughts – This is a film that feels like they put the wrong characters in the middle of a survival horror that also offers us nothing new.
Overall: Forgettable Horror.
Rating