Across the River

2013 Italy

****

While monitoring a fox he has strapped with a micro camera, an ethologist discovers a seemingly abandoned village hidden away in the middle of the woods on the Slovenian border. A heavy downpour washes away the only road out and he is forced to remain and explore the empty buildings. A mutilated boar tips him off that there is some kind of unknown predator stalking about. His apprehension grows when the isolation mixes in with some unsettling occurrences (scattered animal remains, nerve shattering wails coming from the woods in the middle of the night, animal traps have been tripped but snared nothing and some horrifying images have been captured on the surrounding trail cams). There’s a necessary but still intrusive subplot involving the search for the missing scientist and an old man who knows something about what’s going on in the remote village. Giving anything else away would be a complete disservice to anyone who has yet to discover this creepy-ass flick. Just know it’s a slow burn piece of tension building that fully utilizes the nightmarish setting.