... good reviews must have been involved with it being made.

To be honest I hate found footage-type movies and I hate low budget when it's really obvious. This movie has a lot of flaws, primarily because the storyline and the storytelling are very convoluted, it's too long and has unnecessary characters. It's hard to keep track of all the characters: who is dying, who is doing what, who is missing, blah blah blah. The bottom line is that it's a poorly conceived and executed movie, but it does have some upsides.

That said, I sat through it and was hooked after about 15 minutes. I wanted to see what happens next. The setting in the woods was beautiful, and the creepy abandoned, falling-down houses in the middle of nowhere had there own appeal. Why are they there? Their presence alone raises interesting questions in a creepy movie. Yeah I wanted to see if there were dead bodies in the houses, that's the whole point of the movie. So for me, there was a decent amount of suspense.

Plus there was just enough character development to make me care about what happens and I wanted to see more. The acting wasn't great (but there are FAR worse movies out there). Some characters were relatable and/or authentic and others were unnecessary. Yes this aspect was uneven.

There isn't much saving grace in this movie but I have to give credit where it's due. The fact that it kept my interest when it had so many downsides (and I am not afraid to criticize bad films and give low scores), means they did something well. Rating a 3 seems about right to me.

If you can get through the first 20 minutes, which is the slowest, then give the rest of the movie a chance. If you don't have interest after 20 minutes, then don't waste any more time.

Technically (camera work, direction maybe even acting) was well done but my low score is explained in the following. My initial feeling was confirmed with the first sculpted Grizzly Adams beard and solidified with a conversation that two of the main idiots had about how the NSA was tracking their stupid Urbex trip. People talk about the 80's being the greed generation which is true but it was a collective greed that had benefits to families sometimes at the sake of others but they actually helped fund the economy BMW's SUV's and the construction industry greatly benefited from that greed and that money actually did benefit everyone and fueled the need for and desire for immigrant amnesty, however you feel about that is up to you. I only bring this up because of the Me Me Me generation millennial the most self centered self obsessed group who believe everything that happened before they came out of their mother was MEH. Urbex the word as well as the practice fed by social media shows this narcissistic behavior more clearly than anything else and this made me giddy with anticipation for the ensuing carnage and while I don't advocate real world violence I couldn't wait for the first man bun to fall unfortunately no man buns were symbolically harmed during this movie. The plot was loose but that makes sense I would say the acting was good except these are millennials so how much acting was involved I'm not sure, the camera work must have been challenging and was well above any standards I would expect especially for the difficulty involved, the direction was also impressive because a lot of uncontrollable issues would make it difficult to know what to expect. My low score isn't to do with any real problems with the movie itself it's solely for the Blair Witch effect this will have in the future. The idea that someone will film what was obviously a personal tragedy with giant smiles and 14 people with camera phones show slightly different angles while screaming "Urbex mother load" "my brother will be so jealous" shows a complete lack of context awareness. All of the protagonists or the people they are representing never look at the greater picture while simultaneously saying they are looking at greater picture. Moments of nonsensical out of place self aggrandizing emotions filmed by the fake camera crew which go away immediately when the fake camera crew stops filming was completely how I'd picture things being in real life and absolutely why this story was told as well as it was yet that's not how the story is laid out. Was it truth as told by a millennial sympathizer and these moments of fake emotion were a fluke I'm not sure but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the talent. My score without the BW effect would be a solid six but someone has to pay for what follows. My score may seem a bit disingenuous considering my generally favorable review but I'm ok with that.