This is now, officially, my personal pet peeve about most movies: they have a lot going for them in a very narrow, familiar genre fashion, but then waste it by not making any effort to be original, or intelligent when the plot or action finally kicks in. As if it doesn't matter what they do after a certain point, as if anyone watching the film won't care if it's stops making sense or becomes so downright stereotypical and bland and DUMB that it's kind of an insult. This film starts fairly good (for such a well worn genre convention: city folks go into country and find danger), nothing exceptional by any stretch but the actors do alright with rather dull characters, the cinematography is amazing and the countryside is awesome. Pretty by the book (one character is "strong" and overcoming cancer so you might guess who's gonna survive) but I was interested. They even make a point of what amazing negotiators these folks are so I was expecting that might come into play when they run afoul of the local loonies. But no. It actually just gets forgotten and how they behave from their first meeting on is basically guaranteed to allow the stupid, predictable plot to unfold after that. Very quickly the best thing about the film becomes the interplay between the locals which is amusing in a believable fashion and, thank god, not played broadly for laughs! Their performances are also the best, and if only the script didn't let them down when it came to what happens this film might have been a real winner. They had everything they needed to make a successful genre entry except the ability (or willingness) to fix a mediocre script that falls apart in the last half. It's one thing to suggest the city folks are ill equipped to deal with survival at this level (see Deliverance) but this movie just has the characters become idiots. If you don't consider a directors job to include caring about the script, or character actions, you could say it's still handled well enough but all the good points the film earned in the beginning are wasted.

Is this the greatest film ever made?

No.

Is this the worst film ever made?

No.

This is actually a very good film considering the budget. It's paced well, the cinematography is decent, most of the acting is very good too.

Where this film is let down is with a mediocre script which lets it down on occasion.

The plot was decent enough, but as we've seen in far more expensive films, sometimes the decision making of the characters is lacking. I can't be overly critical of that aspect as a result.

One thing which did stick in my craw was when the main body of the party first encountered the 'farmers', they were instantly suspicious of them. I felt that was poorly handled, as considering their predicament, i believe a group wold be inclined to be naturally friendly towards people who could potentially get your injured friend to safety. What we saw instead was awkward silence, two groups staring at eachother like some 'Irish Standoff'. They were too suspicious for absolutely no reason. So i feel had they made that initial encounter friendlier and more natural, with things starting to become more obvious and clear cut once they were back at the farm, it would've been better for the film, overall.

As it was, this was an excellent effort, it would've been interesting to see what could've been done with a larger budget being well utilised to merely enhance what we got here.