Rent Dark Mountain (2016)

Stick With it - Dark Mountain review by NP

Three girls, all as daft as each other, invite the sardonic, permanently bored Nancy to accompany them on a camping trip. Nancy brings with her sensible Annie (Sharron Calvin) – who nevertheless manages to trip and injure herself - and off they go.

The performances occasionally lapse into wide-eyed, over gesturing drama-school gurning, but the characters they are playing are often ditzy – essential for horror films. They even remember to exclaim designer reactions like ‘eewww’ and ‘er, hello’ when they see something gross half covered by leaves. After a while of tramping through woods, they find, Blair Witch-style, that they appear to be travelling in circles. Other things happen, few of them terribly frightening – although some of them will make you wince - despite the effectively ominous rumblings of the soundtrack.

As they become further entrenched in the wilderness, seemingly at the behest of a vengeful spirit, it is difficult not to become concerned for them and their ever-worsening plight. The locations are terrific and the cinematography is beautiful, and for an independent project, the effects are decent and show a commendable restraint. Stick with it – ‘Dark Mountain’ turns out to be a decent horror experience.