Horror am Mill Creek (1983)

Horror am Mill Creek: Directed by Andrew Davis. With John Friedrich, Adrian Zmed, Ernest Harden Jr., Lewis Smith. A group of rangers go camping on unfamiliar forest grounds. All’s well until the group members start getting killed by a cunning killer in the woods.

“The inspirational for this sub-standard, low-budget woodland slasher/survival horror is obvious (u0026#39;Friday the 13thu0026#39;and u0026#39;Deliveranceu0026#39;), but even then it took the hackneyed clichés and kind of added its own messy slab to the well-worn formula. Was it for the better? I donu0026#39;t know? What fell by the wayside was the overall pacing due to there being too little to the transparent story and simply having the characters going through the motions. Too much dead air with a small body count and not enough thrills. When they were inserted, it was feeble. Other then a decent opening (with that smoking theme song) and thunderously outlandish closing, in between was a lot of repetitively aimless parading. Itu0026#39;s easy through those parts because of the beautifully authentic setting that was fluidly photographed. Although the nocturnal scenes are poorly lit. Director Andrew Davis (who would go onto to be a pivotal action deliverer with titles like u0026#39;The Packageu0026#39; (1989), u0026#39;Under Siege (1992) and u0026#39;The Fugitiveu0026#39; (1993) and many more) does a quite passive, if workman-like job without the setting the world alight. Thereu0026#39;s true grit, but the attacks are telegraphed and rushed leaving it struggling to sustain any sort of momentum in its attempts of suspense. Atmosphere on the other hand, breathes some starkness and the environment moodily blends well with Susan Justinu0026#39;s eerily unhinged music score and penetrating forest sounds. The cast is more interesting to look at on paper, than actually watching their performances. Really the material doesnu0026#39;t allow much room for growth and makes them all unappealingly disposable. Too many I guess. Daryl Hannah, Adrian Zmed and Rachel Ward are fine. Joe Pantoliano in a short role makes the most in an over-exaggeratedly on-edge turn and Lewis Smithu0026#39;s unpredictable character kept one amused. It has its moments, but fails to really come out of first-gear.”