The Ridge (2005)

Overrated

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

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.

The film is a contemporary horror that draws from the urban legend of The Ridge Runner, a brutal killer out to slaughter anyone who settles on his land. "The Ridge" begins slow and clunky but within the first fifteen minutes the atmosphere becomes a nonstop slaughter fest. Okay maybe a bit more than fifteen minutes but the point is what starts as a questionable flick turns into a real chiller.The story opens with the cliché set-up of friends on a getaway. Only within the first few moments of arriving to the house, nestled in the woods, things get eerie. The dialog is flimsy, random, and doesn't really seem to lead into the story, at least not until the standard "do you know a scary story" moment. That is when we are introduced to the urban legend of the brutal ridge runner. There are moments when the story, even the telling of the legend, feels contrived, but for the most part it is a plausible premise. It is obvious though that most of the writing focused on action and kills based on the weak dialog. So at first the film starts off shaky. But when the sh*t hits the fan, the film almost transforms into something totally new. The special effects are pretty tight. The attention to presenting killer scenes and action sequences is obvious in "The Ridge". The house plays a big role in the film with so many rooms, levels and areas for the killer to pop out from, The night shooting and sound effects help create a traditional horror look, that will be recognizable to horror fans. From the moment the first body is found, explaining the eerie beginning to the film, "The Ridge" really goes full throttle giving total slasher entertainment. The soundtrack at times feels hokey-hallmark-y, but I can over look the style of music used to create an emotional continuity to the story. Overall "The Ridge" turns into a pretty decent indie slasher film. The fact that the horror just happens, with no justification other than a faceless killer mad about loosing his land, only adds to the nightmare. There is some pretty stellar directional choices and cinematography in "The Ridge". Honestly if the dialog and first part of the film would have had the strength that pops up in the second and third act then this would have been a ten for me.

Five college students gather to spend the weekend at an isolated mountain retreat. Two are brothers; most are friends. Yet when they couple up, one will inevitably be left out, scorned not merely by the woman he loves but by his own brother. As he broods alone at midnight, will his suppressed rage engender a monster from the Id who will enact the fantasies of vengeance he wouldn't dare entertain in his conscious mind? Alas, no. But when he recounts an urban legend about a hunter who terrorizes the unsuspecting denizens of the local forest, we know that another sort of rampage can't be far behind.'The Ridge' provides a measure of entertainment value, though perhaps not in the way its creators intended. Its premise, performances, and production values inspire laughter more than terror. But it does feature solid pacing, and it effectively suggests what it can't graphically depict. In the end, only its technical limitations truly set it apart from its big-budget brethren. Hackneyed plots and amateurish acting are, after all, the lifeblood of horror cinema. So if viewers find too much fault with this hopefully-witting B movie, they ultimately have a problem with the genre, not 'The Ridge.'I admit that I watched this only because I am related to its leading man, Neal Bledsoe. He has since moved on to projects far more likely to burnish his reputation. But 'The Ridge' could rise again, as a re-released DVD prominently featuring his image in order to capitalize on his subsequent stardom. It happened with Naomi Watts's pre-fame thriller about a homicidal elevator, 'The Shaft.' When that happens, Neal will know he's truly made it.

Five friends gather together at a secluded vacation home in the remote mountains where they find themselves being terrorized by a legendary local figure known as the Ridge Runner (a genuinely frightening and impressively physical portrayal by Nathaniel Park). Okay, so the basic premise isn't anything new, but fortunately writer/director Brett Haley compensates for this dearth of originality by relating the engrossing story at a steady pace, ably building and sustaining a spooky atmosphere and a considerable amount of gut-wrenching suspense (the lengthy second half with the young adults being relentlessly stalked and picked off by the vicious maniac is truly tense, gripping, and harrowing), and making fine use of the remote woodland location in order to create a potently unsettling sense of isolation, vulnerability, and utter helplessness. Moreover, the jolting moments of sudden savage violence pack a pretty hard punch. The uniformly sound acting from the capable cast helps a lot: Neal Bledsoe as the cocky and aggressive Noah, Haley as the wimpy and bumbling Blake, Lydia Hyslop as the sweet Cara, Lauren Powell as the perky Anna, and Jesse Patch as the amiable Ethan. This movie deserves extra praise for the exceptionally well-drawn and believable main characters; the heated rivalry between brothers Noah and Blake in particular gives this picture extra dramatic substance. Eric Sheretz's sharp cinematography puts an energetic prowling camera to extremely effective and exciting use. Austin Donahue's rattling score likewise does the nerve-jangling trick. A real sleeper.