There’s a long and troubling history involving missing persons in Rudwick Forest, all said to be the work of a witch. This spookiness is why three paranormal investigators are digging deep into the local legend. It’s set around recovered footage so you should be able to guess just how real the supposed curse is. The opening scene involving a mother and daughter features the expected poor performance from a child and predictable scare but it is the footage that gets our team interested in the area so without it we’d have nothing to watch… so I’ll take it. Local color warns of how dangerous the forest is and not just due to the supernatural shenanigans purportedly running rampant in the dark woods. The town neighboring the woods is going through some hard economic times so there may be some missing people but there’s also a few who have gone out to the isolated spot to quit being a burden on their loved ones. Missing kids have also led to parental grief and suicide has been an answer for more than a few distraught parents. The trio rent out a cabin from a former ranger who worked in Rudwick Forest and he claims the area is unsettling but he has no concrete proof of anything supernatural roaming around. He even takes them on a nighttime tour of his old route but he also refuses to journey all that deep, even if he may not believe there’s a witch in the area, he doesn’t feel like pressing his luck. So the three go on without him and almost immediately hear a woman crying. Nothing spooky, just a hysterical mother searching for her daughter. So it’s just more of a bummer than anything. An ex-cop steps in to collect the woman and tells the young investigators that they should probably go home. Unexpectedly, they listen to him. Waiting for them at their rental house is a VHS tape with a note attached that says “Watch me.” It’s footage of a woman trying to find her son in the pitch black woods with only her camera light to guide her. She stumbles across a mirror in the woods (nope) and starts talking to an invisible someone about doing anything to get her baby back. It ends with her cutting her own throat but props for being able to catch it on your own handheld camera… proud of you, crazy woman! They take it to the former cop and he points them in the direction of a local father who lost his daughter and who has come to believe the story of the witch. The unhinged man (Nelson, if you must know) is convinced he can summon said witch and get his daughter back. The three go to see him and he greets them with a shotgun but once they explain who they are, he welcomes them in his home. Nelson shares his story and then convinces them to head out to the woods with him so he can show them how to bring forth the witch and get his daughter back. It seems like it’s working and our group of heroes are in for one hell of a time. Appalachian tree art turns up, stupid choices are made, infighting begins and something spooky appears. This all seems more than a little familiar. Nelson is not great when it comes to acting (which becomes clear thanks to his integral role in the final act) but he does seem to enjoy walking backwards looking all menacing so I guess he has that going for him. Don’t let the shaky opening performances deter you, if ya got a little inkling’ for found footage horror you could do a hell of a lot worse. In a shocking turn of events, all three protagonists are likable… yes, even the cameraman. Huzzah! Granted, you’re definitely thinking Blair Witch through most of the runtime but it fails to dig itself under your skin thanks to better equipment and an actual entity showing up on camera. I’m not saying it’s God’s gift to many people’s least-favorite sub-genre but I didn’t hate it and I’ve hated a bunch of these shaky cam turds I’ve come across.
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