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Alice (Lindsay Anne Williams) and Vera (Sherri Eakin) once have been a
happy couple - but they've grown apart of late, also because Alice had an
affair with a man, Thatcher (Jeremy Sande), so they have decided to go to
a forest retreat to save their marriage, as their feelings are stil strong
for one another. Of course, things don't go as well as planned as they
have grown apart further than they originally realized, and that
eventually Thatcher, who has been tracking Alice, shows up, doesn't help
one bit. But things get really ugly when Alice and Vera accidently cross
the property line to the neighbours - and these neighbours, led by Bill
Barham (Miles Doleac), really don't like trespassers, even if the girls
were on their land only for a tick. Turns out that the Barhams and the
family of Nita (Mindy Van Kuren), owner of the retreat, have had a feud
spanning generations, and with every trespasser, Bill thinks he has the
right to sacrifice not only the trespassers themselves but also all
connected to them he finds at Nita's retreat. And he's not only also the
local sheriff to back up this claim but even the leader of a cult
consisting of all those in power, locally. And all Nita has to protect
Alice, Vera and Thatcher are her people's Native American spirits - which
help a bit, but then Thatcher's dragged away by the cultists, and even if
he has tried to destroy their relationship, Alice and Vera decide to save
him. Alice even goes so far as to offer herself in place of Thatcher,
demanding safe passage for him and Vera in return. This actually impresses
Bill, and he agrees to the exchange. Vera drags a brutally tortured
Thatcher to safety, but he's too far gone already and ultimately dies at
the retreat. Meanwhile, Alice tries to make a getaway from the cultists
when Bill tries to rape her, but is ultimately stopped and tortured.
However, one of the cultists is Sandy (Ritchie Montgomery), caretaker of
the retreat and with the cult only by blood relation (he's Bill's uncle),
and he frees Alice and makes sure she manages to get back to the retreat.
But once at the retreat, Alice and Vera really run out of options as the
cultists are quick to put the place under siege ...
Basically, this is just a really cool movie. Sure, it takes a bit to
kick into gear, but Iyou (like me) might actually enjoy the slowburn
build-up and the fact that we get fleshed out characters in return - and
once the film kicks into gear it goes full-throttle: It's violent, it's
mean, it's creepy, and it's "take no prisoners" approach to
things is commendable - and yet it manages to tell a proper story with
twists and surprises throughout. And of course, a solid cast helps making
this one as well as it does, as do the proper locations. Basically, a
film that might make you rethink your next trip to whatever retreat ...
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