The Hike

THE HIKE is another nastiness-in-the-woods slice of British horror. The template for this one seems to be EDEN LAKE, which is ripped off continuously, particularly at the climax. The storyline involves a group of girls who decide go off on a trip into the deepest darkest woods (shades of THE DESCENT in the group dynamics) only to run foul of some nasty blokes for whom rape and murder is the order of the day. There's one decent twist in this film's storyline but the rest of it is a complete dud if I'm honest. Like a lot of modern horror flicks, THE HIKE mistakes unpleasantness for scares, and watching women being raped and abused isn't much fun. The brooding set-up is effective enough but the second half falls apart completely. The whole thing is shot in the dark with lots of shaky-cam work as interchangeable characters run around and kill or are killed in turn. You won't give a damn what's going on because by this stage the storyline has dwindled away and the viewer is left watching cheapjack trash.

5 women friends go on a hiking/camping trip and are set upon by various men who they had thought were friendly. This film is well lit, well photographed, has good sound, is set in beautiful countryside, and features five very attractive young women. Sadly, none of them can act to save their lives, a criticism which can be levelled at the male cast members, too. Before the set-up devolves into the unpleasantness of the second half - reminiscent of Eden Lake but without the social commentary (or, indeed, any point whatsoever), there is a skinnydipping sequence where todgers get flashed, the women remain in their undies, and then nothing happens. What sort of film is this? It eschews a bit of salacious sex in favour of degrading violence. It seems as if the whole point of the film is to display violent unpleasantness to women. Not recommended unless you are a violent misogynist.

Five women go on a hiking weekend that turns into a fight for survival. In many ways this film pulls parts from both The Descent and Eden Lake, two other recent British films that concentrate on vacations going wrong. Right from the off you realise this isn't going to be anywhere near the level of those superior films. The five female lead characters are much of a muchness and no-one stands out. The quality of the acting from all five is very moderate at best and at times very poor. The fact that Tamer Hassan a very moderate actor at best, is at the higher end of the acting ability spectrum on show here tells you all you need to know. By far the best and most natural acting on show comes from a cameo at the end from Shauna Macdonald. What a shame they couldn't have incorporated her into the script earlier but maybe budget wouldn't allow this. The script is disappointing and the ridiculous scenario's that occur stretch any small amount of credibility created early on. I know it's a horror film and doesn't need to be realistic but the lazy set up really does let the film down. For much of the film I was going to rate it much lower than a 6 however to be fair the last third of the film did pick up very well and hold the attention. In my view the fate of many films is sealed by the ending and this is where The Hike scored highly in my opinion. I really enjoyed the ending which wasn't a generic cop out and left me satisfied that I hadn't wasted my time watching the previous 90 minutes. This is a low budget film and it shows in many places but it did in parts entertain me. I appreciate that many people will find it junk and in many ways they are right. However if you expect little and are willing to forgive flaws then there is enough here for the avid horror fan to enjoy.

Awful. What more can I say about this terrible terrible movie. Everything was bad about this movie. From the actors to the script. Worst of all there was no definitive motive fro the killings. A stupid senseless movie that should have NEVER been made. A waste of 83 minutes of my life I will never get back, ever. I wonder if this movie had been American would it be any good? Low budget low acting and a bad script. I have seen many B movies and this one is the worst of the bunch. The movie's atmosphere was eerie and claustrophobic which gave the movie a spooky ambiance and the ending had a little twist. I hope there is NOT a sequel to this poodle poop.

This really is a truly awful film. Girls go camping together in completely inappropriate clothing, so one is warned this is going to go badly wrong. Sadistic, gratuitous violence seems to be glorified with no plot justification, other than the glorification of gratuitous violence. This really dredges the deepest pits of human depravity, supposedly in the name of entertainment, as there is no moral compass in this film whatever, it is sickeningly depraved, though well shot and with plenty of tension, but tension only caused by the incipient nastiness which runs virtually throughout. Best avoided at all cost. I wish I knew it was this bad before watching.

This is the only film I have seen where the entire cast's acting is awful. Truly awful. So awful it becomes annoying very very quickly. It is so mind numbingly awful it could potentially make your head bleed as it turns to mush from the shriekish loud voices of wannabe actresses trying far far too hard. To be fair, is is much the director's fault as cast members. The fact that the director thought this trash acting was acceptable speaks volumes about their skills on set. Apart from the standard of acting, the realism within the story got lost long before a word was typed it seems. A cross between the ridiculous and the factually incorrect adds to the films crappyness. Usually there is some comedy element to awful films - but there is nothing to laugh at in this one. Give this one a miss for sure. You would be better off watching your laundry being washed.

I watched this last night on the Horror Channel, UK. An hour and a half of complete nonsense. Totally unconvincing story, extremely poor acting and none dimensional characters. The script feels like it has been written by a 10 year old kid. The story does not make any sense. Why a group of killers are out in the woods waiting for poor, unsuspecting hikers is beyond me. The lead male and co-writer Ben Loyd-Holmes cannot portray a menacing killer, in my opinion. I have heard quite a lot of hype about Zara Phythian, but after watching this film it must all be hype. Her performance was dire. She was monotone, even when crying and upset. Admittedly she had her work cut out due to the dreadful dialogue and script in general, however she just didn't seem to try and act. I know she comes from a martial arts background but that doesn't mean to say that she cannot put on a performance...even her fighting was unconvincing. Some of the cinematography wasn't bad but on certain points, such as the action scenes the cinematographer decided to shoot right up close so you couldn't see what was supposed to be happening. People have been going on about there was a twist at the end....there was no twist, it was so predictable and you could see it coming a mile off. The film is very lazy, in writing, acting and directing. Please, please, please DO NOT BOTHER WATCHING THIS!

The Hike, a group of friends (all girls), travel to the woods for a fun weekend of camping and hiking... that turns into a nightmare. The story is simple, and there is nothing wrong with that, but... with such a simple story, it needed to deliver on everything else it was offering, and sad to say, it didn't for me. The acting here is a mix for me, yes... it was decent, but i felt it was missing something. The setting was plain, althou there were some nice scenic areas. Sure there are some scenes that might make ppl turn away with disgust, but sadly it's not the gore part of the movie, it trys to shock the viewers by showing full on violence (but it was pretty sub par to me) i find it more of a 2nd rate exploitation movie if anything. There were no real surprises, there was no feeling of fear as i was watching this, and there was no shock value (i've watched a lot of horror/thrillers, so i expected more). The directing was sub par, not sure if i'll blame the director on this one, cause the script was just bad. Overall, semi decent acting, sub par directing, bad script. Final Verdict - 4 out of 10, i had a lot of mix feelings for this film, on one hand it could of been something good to watch, on the other hand, it was just crap, i cannot recommend this movie to anyone.

Yes, they can! The fundamental problem of this movie is that it is not a movie as such. It is very boring nonsensical soft core torture * or something like that. There is no reasonable story for the girls that will be raped and killed nor for the guys who will rape and kill them. They just do happen to meet and soft core torture * will happen. None of the characters are believable or interesting. It is mostly running in the woods, screaming, some bondage play in the mud and such. The movie could be roughly compared to Lake Eden but in comparison to that the Lake Eden has interesting characters, plot and very disturbing message. Surprisingly enough the movie does not even have any thrills, it is very predictable. It promises something for horror fans, for thriller fans and even for the * consumers, but fails in all the aspects. There are no sympathetic heroes so you do not feel anything. It is just very boring, somewhat disgusting flick. What a waste of time!

** SPOILER ALERT ** This movie started off okay in the opening sequence then it went down hill fast from there. As it says on the cover "It's all about survival", yeah, trying to survive watching it is what they must have meant. The acting is rubbish, the storyline is rubbish, and the fact that the producers and director thought this would be a good idea is rubbish. I couldn't wait to see the women get killed in this movie, because I didn't give two shits about the characters. And on that note, if you are a woman and you watch this then you will hate it as it totally exploits women to the extreme in my opinion. The way women are portrayed in this movie is an insult to them. They're made to look like dizzy nonsensical sluts (sorry to be so blunt, but it's true) and I felt embarrassed as a guy watching it. And the fact that skimpily dressed women would go out camping together like they wanted you to believe is a joke. The movie is a bit like a soft * at one stage and that scene has no reason whatsoever of being there. Apart from a good kill scene or two the movie was annoying as a lot of the time they are running through the forest almost without any direction. So in summary I can only give this very below average movie a 2 out of 10.