In Arvores National Park, a young woman by the name of Lennon gets a job as a back-country ranger with the hope of figuring out what the hell happened to her sister. The little girl vanished in the area years ago and Ranger Lennon has never been able to put that tragedy to rest. So into the vast wilderness she goes, and it may be easy on the eyes but it sure as shit ain’t easy on the mind. Isolation, harsh conditions and the unknowns all factor into the trials of Lennon’s new position and it would seem that finally getting answers about her sibling was the worst thing that could happen. Lennon goes exploring for a couple days to investigate a little and runs into one of her coworkers (who seems like he could be a creep) after she gets discombobulated. Weeks of searching are uneventful, then one night somebody frantically knocks on her small cabin door, shouting that they need help. The injured man runs off into the woods and she races after him. He speaks of a missing friend who vanished into thin air from their camp and a search is on the next day. She disobeys an order from her superior and goes looking for the missing girl, who she finds completely disheveled and covered in blood. They’re happy the search was successful but they’re pissed she didn’t stay put so they order her to stay at her station and not got back out into the surrounding wilderness. She disobeys again and things spiral out of control almost immediately and not in a way that makes it easy to keep your feet firmly planted in reality. It works well to establish a wonderful foreboding atmosphere in the early going and then sadly stumbles when it gets to revealing the oddness at play. Luckily, there’s still some effective set pieces contained within and a striking moment scattered in there, so it doesn’t feel like a betrayal of anything. Not so much as a fumble as it is a slight miscommunication. The Missing 411 series will tell you that there’s a mass conspiracy involving national parks and points at everything from alternate dimensions to Bigfoot and wild men. The theories have picked up steam in recent years because the idea is an interesting one and it’s easier for humans to believe something out of their control and actively working against them is causing all this trauma. There’s some weird shit admittedly, but nature is vast, chaotic and weird on its own. Do I buy into a mass conspiracy? No, that would take a level of secrecy and commitment that I have no faith in humans of being capable of harnessing. But like I said, nature is fucking weird, so who knows what the hell is out there. Also, people are dumb as fuck, so I’m guessing most of these missing folks were on a one-way road to early termination anyways. The movie does a fine job with handling the wild theories out there but it doesn’t exactly adapt well to the screen. But hey, Wai Ching Ho is there as the head ranger and she’s fucking great.
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