Preservation (2015) Movie Review

Preservation is an adrenaline-fueled thriller

Director: Christopher Denham

Starring: Wrenn Schmidt, Pablo Schreiber, Aaron Staton, Cody Saintgnue

Studios: Present Pictures

Distributed by: The Orchard

Release Dates: April 17, 2014 (Tribeca Film Festival)

January 9, 2015 (U.S.)

Plot: A woman, her husband and his brother are stalked and hunted down by a group of maniacs, who wanted to kill them as their trophies.

A group of hunter out in the wilderness becomes the hunted in this high tension thriller from Christopher Denham. Wit (played by Wrenn Schmidt), her husband Mike (Aaron Staton) and his brother Sean (Pablo Schreiber) went into a forest preserve for a hunting trip. Dismissing a sign in the entrance stating that the forest is closed, they continue their plans. But the following day, they woke up finding X marks painted on their foreheads, with all their stuff (including their guns and supplies) gone. Soon, as they try to find their way out of the forest, they are hunted one by one by a group of maniacs wearing masks.

This thriller kinda feels like a cross between The Purge and You’re Next set in the woods. I must say that at first, the movie feels a bit slow. Probably it was because it was taking it’s time to build up it’s characters. And it worked really great as the movie progresses. You really feel threatened when the characters are already facing the dangers lurking in the woods because you’ve already spent some time knowing them earlier and have invested emotion, rooting for them.

Great Set of Cast

The actors were all pretty good. Wrenn Schmidt is a really great actress. This is the first time I saw her in a movie and I’m already impressed. She really makes up a good heroine in the film. I think she was totally bad-ass. That’s why right after watching the film, I immediately tweeted her and I was so happy when she noticed me on Twitter.

Aaron Staton plays her husband Mike. He was actually also good in playing that douche guy ho can’t take himself off his cellphone for five minutes. His character was somehow a bit annoying during the first part of the film. Probably that was the main intention since it was really irritating at how he treats his wife. But then he goes through this shift in his character as the movie progresses and we started to feel empathy for him, especially when he was being hunted by one of the the maniac. We feel scared for him, and we wanted him to be alright to be with his wife.

Pablo Schreiber plays his brother, Sean. He is somewhat the most intimidating character for me. I think it’s because he looks more as the threat to Wit and his bother in the beginning of the film. It’s like he’s the one that we should fear. But then, everything that we thought changes midway through the movie as the maniacs reveal themselves and starts to hunt them one by one. I must that Sean’s death was a bit shocking to me because there was this hope that he can survive this. But then, shit happens.

Non Stop Thrills

The film offers a lot of exciting moments. I was literally on the edge of my seat at every point of the film. Although there were some scenes that people may find as clichéd as they’re very common in the horror genre, they were made to good use and were very effective.

One scene for example features Mike as he is being chased by one of the maniacs, wearing a mask. He ended up hiding inside a portable toilet in one of the campsites in the forest preserve. Here, the maniac terrorize him and forces him to go out of his hiding place by stabbing a knife through the walls of the portable toilet. I found this to be one of the most heart-pounding moments from the film.

The film relies on a lot of suspense in every scene. You can really feel the dread all throughout the movie. You can really feel the threat creeping around you at every turn. One of the best examples for this was the scene where Wit is being chased by the group of maniacs and she ends up hiding in the sewer.

Verdict:

This is probably one of the best thrillers I’ve seen in years. It has all the good things that you can wish for a genre film like this: great cast, awesome cinematography, amazing direction, and non-stop thrills to give fans a good time.

Definitely worth checking out. This is thriller at it’s best.

I give this 5 stars out of 5.

Preservation Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Horror... by TrailerWood