Rent Stranger in the Woods (2024)

Enjoyable low budget thriller ... - Stranger in the Woods review by NP

Olivia (played by Holly Kenney, who also wrote this) and her friends go on vacation, mainly to allow Olivia some respite after an apparent suicide attempt. They’re a fairly likeable bunch, although liable to be annoying from time to time, but they mean well. The problem is, that although her friends think she tried to end her own life, Olivia believes someone attacked her.

This is a fairly low-budget venture. It doesn’t try to revolutionise cinema as we know it. It does, however, present a solid and mainly well-played thriller/horror, with some convincing moments of jeopardy and a nice, subtly signposted twist at the end. Kenney is talented both as a writer and an actress; Adam Newacheck impresses as director too – there are some nice scene-setting flourishes and the tension is certainly ramped up.

Once again, there are several online reviews attacking this film for not being a higher-budgeted venture, which is a depressingly common occurrence. I’m not sure what some people want from a film that hasn’t had multi-million dollars spent on it. I had a great time with ‘Stranger in the Woods’, and my score is 7 out of 10.