Darkness Waits (2020) (USA)

aka It’s Happening Again 

⭐️1/2

An infamous patch of road along the Appalachian Trail goes by the name of Dead Woman’s Hollow and has a dark history. This brings a team of college paranormal investigators to the location for their awful ghost hunting show Soul Hunters. Extended opening credits play over some old footage of a group of hippies partying in the woods to a title track. The video is being watched by our heroes because towards the end a figure shows up in the background and the group leader thinks it’s a shadow ghost. She then shows them the crime scene photos of the dead hippies who were gunned down soon after. One of them points out that it may not be a supernatural figure but just their killer. Good to know someone is using their brain. Jess assures them that the same entity has been witnessed for at least 100 years, so there ain’t no way. She also lets them know that they’ll be shooting guerrilla style because the local authorities did not grant them any permits. Two of the dudes enlist their buddy to dress up and go up there so they can catch him on camera and not waste their weekend wandering around the wilderness. It’s a fine plan but the problem is that there’s already something dangerous in the woods and it knows they’re trampling around. Freshly-appointed sheriff Buck Rogers is getting comfortable in his new position and is out of his element when he has to deal with the sinister history of the area and the impending doom the group of university students are marching right into. This doom is coming in the form of a mustachless hillbilly with a rifle. After a bit this thing goes past its natural endpoint and we’re treated to an endurance test. It runs into an issue found in a whole bunch of these backyard flicks where a lack of editing skills make for boring scenes that don’t need to be there. You’ve already told us your buddy is going to be piecing together a costume from the thrift store, we don’t need a couple minutes dedicated to him shopping as intense music plays. And then even more time spent with him dressing up in said costume to the same repetitive theme. I don’t think you can legally call anything in this a “performance” and I doubt “acting natural” qualifies either because the word acting is in it. The least threatening mountain man I’ve ever seen makes for one hilarious antagonist. So, you should be laughing in between the pessimistic world view and failed humor. A frail Conrad Brooks shows up so this was shot at least three years prior to the 2020 release unless his ghost came back to cameo in a garbage indie film. Could be. I don’t know, I’m no scientist. It’s one hundred minutes long and does almost nothing… that is completely unforgivable. It seriously ends and then chugs on for another forty minutes. If you’re like me, you’ll laugh a couple of times… at least at yourself.