The blurb said it was about dimensional gateways in a national forest. That sounded like a pretty good premise for a horror movie.

Lets ignore the fact that the name of the movie has nothing to do with anything in the film. For an independent movie by a writer/director making his first feature, it’s pretty good. It is well acted, well filmed, there are suspenseful and intentionally confusing scenes, plus a horror movie about inter-dimensional portals is a cool idea.

So, why do I sound like I was less than thrilled by this movie? There were too many times where I got frustrated with characters doing things that didn’t make sense. It yanks you out of the story. Also, I really hate it when problems are caused simply because people don’t talk to each other, especially when there is no need for the secrecy. Why did McKenzie hide her sisters notebook from her brother? He already didn’t seem that worried by their sister’s disappearance, so wouldn’t it have made him MORE worried about her if he had been shown the pages? Even if he didn’t believe what was written (and who would?) it would have shown she was mixed up in something potentially dangerous. McKenzie is too secretive for no reason except that the writer probably thought it would add more tension.

I still liked the movie, but I personally would have changed a couple things. Get rid of the “small town folk all have a secret and want to off all strangers” bit. Just have the sister disappear, her other sibs find the notes and follow her trail. I also would have had the portals interconnect, so they get lost going from one dimension to next without knowing it.