The Hike

Starring: Zara Pythian, Barbara Nedeljakova, Ben Loyd-Holmes

Synopsis:

Returning home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan where she witnessed the death of her boyfriend, ex-soldier Kate joins her four best friends on a hiking weekend. Setting off into a deep forest, they encounter a strange trio of eastern Europeans living off the land, and another trio of men out on an adventure weekend. After making camp, one of the girls goes missing, and the rest soon come to realise they are in deadly danger...

The Hike, a British entry into the Survival Horror genre, does have its faults, but there is a lot to praise as well. The first big impression the film made with me was the cinematography. Considering that there is a lot of shots of people being chased through the forest, there is not a jot of hand-held shakycam to be found. Nothing but proper, fluid tracking shots.

The opening scene throws us straight into the action, as we bear witness to a previous group of campers who meet their demise thanks to an unknown attacker. It doesn’t matter that we know nothing about these people – we know they are in deadly peril and that peril will be waiting for our protagonists.

Unfortunately we don’t get to learn a lot about the girls themselves, other than they are very pretty. Other than Kate, the only one to have any character definition is the model, Torri, who is flighty and used to being pampered. The only real defining characteristic is for the group as a whole – and this is quite unique for this sort of horror film – in that they are genuinely all friends, and there is no bitchy in-fighting.

The Hike does a good job of keeping its Threat under wraps. As there are a number of other parties in the woods, you’re never quite sure who it’s going to be. We meet the supermodel’s abusive boyfriend (a welcome appearance by The Last Seven’s Tamer Hassan) who follows them and then there’s the Eastern Europeans – two women and a man, who set traps for rabbits around the woods, and finally there’s the trio of alpha males on their adventure weekend, abseiling and rock climbing.

When the Threat is finally revealed, the film handles the violence very well. Some of the girls are killed outright, while the others are assaulted, abducted and subjected to rape. It’s the rape aspect that hurts the film, not because of any moralistic standpoint, but because of the way they are filmed.

All of the rape scenes (yes, there are a few) manage to convey the horror of the situation but some of them look just awkward. You get the impression that the male actors couldn’t quite disengage from their own personal discomfort in having to simulate the violation of their female counterparts.

The other aspect of this which doesn’t really work is when the Threat leader tries to justify what they’re doing, in a tirade of twisted misogynistic gender politics which isn’t very convincing. It would have been better to leave them more enigmatic. A scene which works really well is when some of the girls are tied up, bloodied and beaten, while the antagonists calmly make dinner, making small-talk as if the girls weren’t even there. THAT was a good, scary scene which really showcases their inhumanity.

Zara Pythian makes a great impression with this film. As mentioned before, Kate is one of the few characters given any proper definition. Warm and friendly around her friends, she is openly hostile to any men who approach her and can get a little confrontational. She gets to deliver a decent back-story, the tragedy of her boyfriend being killed, and also gets to utilise the skills she developed in the army. It will come as no surprise that she is our Final Girl, but what is surprising is the amount of pain she has to go through for the last third of the film, which will have you rooting for her even more.

Whilst I wasn’t too keen on some dialogue scenes, the twists in the plot worked very well. The moment the Threat is revealed is done very nicely and you suddenly realise who is in immediate danger. Another good aspect is in the film’s finale, where it makes a convincing attempt to throw everything that’s happened back in your face and for a moment you’re left wondering if what we’ve seen is the truth. A Second later, it becomes a moot point – it doesn’t matter as there is still a dangerous situation to escape from.

Verdict:

There are some stumbling blocks but what works, works very well. The level of technical skill is excellent, and Zara Pythian makes an excellent lead character. This is a decent addition to the growing genre of Survival Horror.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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