The Ridge (2005)

Overrated

Just what I expected

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Cabin in woods, cue spinner, and we get axe slasher. Noah (Neal Bledsoe) and his girlfriend Anna (Lauren Powell) go to his parent's secluded mountain home, one that is much nicer than anything I have owned or will own. He also takes a long his brother Blake (Brett Haley) an obnoxious, rejected, frustrated individual who is frequently called a DH. To pour salt in the wound his ex-gf Cara (Lydia Hyslop) comes along as well as a college jock friend (Jesse Patch) who wants to hook up with Cara.The film opens with bad acting, bad dialogue and a lame soundtrack and doesn't get any better. There is a story about a Hunter who kills people on the Ridge and that is our killer introduction. Normally these types of films show a killing in the beginning to peak out interest and then relate it later on. This one did not. The killings took place in the dark and were not graphic, even with an axe.The biggest horror was when 4 people were all screaming and talking at the same time. The film attempted to get sexy as Anna takes a dip in a striped bathing suit. She removes her bottoms, which are now flowered and tosses them at her boyfriend, then a moment later has on the original bottoms. Like Ed Wood would say, "Who would notice?" That is how bad the directing and editing was on the film.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

A group of friends arrive at a secluded mansion in the middle of the woods in order to unwind for the weekend. But when they arrive, they find the place trashed. After cleaning up, they settle down & tell stories about the Ridge Runner – a crazed survivalist who slaughtered his family before disappearing in the area some years ago. At first, the night goes along nicely but when they find the corpse of the house's caretaker in the pool, the Ridge Runner appears & begins slaughtering his way through the group.The Ridge is an ultra-low budget slasher film conceived as a copy of the Friday the 13th series, except without any hockey-masked killers roaming about, instead having a mysterious survivalist assaulting the cast.For the first 45 or so minutes, nothing happens. Writer-director Brett Haley, who plays the group's most anally-retentive member, writes poor dialogue & has no idea on how to carry the film along without resorting to dull writing. The dialogue that appears in the film seems forced & the background story about the Ridge Runner that they mention is not very interesting.But once the corpse in the pool is found, the film switches gears. Haley might not know how to write good dialogue, but he knows a thing or two about staging brute force shocks. Haley milks the surroundings for all the suspense that he can get – this film has more jumps in its final half-hour than the entirety of most of the Friday the 13th sequels. Not just that, but Haley also turns expectation on its head by featuring a rather unconventional final survivor. Despite its low budget The Ridge is a much more authentic slasher film experience than most of the Friday the 13th sequels.

Worse movie I've ever seen. The sound quality was poor, the script was even worse, and the acting was pathetic! Even the ending sucked pimentos! Obviously Neal Bledsoe has gotten much better, he couldn't have gotten any worse, that is for sure. Acting was way over the top when it came to fear ... totally over-exaggerated to the point that I couldn't watch the entire movie. I have far too much respect for my to put it through the torture of watching a film of this caliber! The sound reminded me of early soap operas ... empty. The scripting wasn't even worth calling this a B movie. All in all, walk away ... you'd get more entertainment by watching a dripping faucet.

Aside from that major continuity error, this film was mediocre but in a good way sometimes.We will start with some pros.Not every scene was constantly dark and there were a few cool shots here and there (A pool, a small hill at the beginning, just little cool shots). The gore was very well done and looked very realistic. It had a nice mythology going (Staying true to it on the first kill made it very pleasant that the filmmakers paid attention to themselves). Now the cons.The awful acting from nearly everyone; only the females being decent at best. The dialog was painful to listen to and the 'character development' was cheesy and bland. The kills were uninspired and bland and they all meshed together in a very unsatisfactory way. The actions of the characters were horrendous and they really could not have done anything better to make themselves better targets.Overall it was decent. I managed to jump twice, which I can usually anticipate quite well (Probably because I had earphones on, trying not to wake everyone up so it was a little awkward watching it on the television set with headphones).Overall I'd give The Ridge a 5/10. It's a forgettable flick that you can rent once and mildly enjoy by yourself or bring a bunch of friends serve them some 'beverages' and you'll have a blast making fun of it. Entertainment is entertainment either way it's entertaining. I'm Not good with profound statements so forgive me.