Preservation

Though rife with impressive visuals and strong performances, Preservation ultimately falls prey to a narrative that grows more and more idiotic as time progresses. It’s a shame, certainly, given that the movie opens with a tremendous amount of promise, as writer/director Christopher Denham offers up a premise that’s just about as foolproof as one could imagine – with the narrative following three friends (Wrenn Schmidt’s Wit, Pablo Schreiber’s Sean, and Aaron Staton’s Mike) as they’re forced to fend for their lives while on a routine camping trip. Denham does an admittedly superb job of cultivating an atmosphere of increasing dread, with the filmmaker’s exceedingly stylish sensibilities complemented by Sam and Alexis’ haunting, memorable score. And although Denham has peppered the movie’s first half with several effectively chilling moments – eg a character heads into the dark woods armed with only the light from his phone – Preservation is, past a certain point, suffused with elements of a progressively (and lamentably) dumbed-down variety. The most obvious example would be the behavior of the movie’s protagonists, as they begin doing things that no rational person would do in a similar situation. (The most obvious example of this is a certain character’s decision to turn his back on one of his assailants.) It does, as a result, become virtually impossible to work up any real sympathy for the surviving protagonists’ efforts, and there’s little doubt, too, that the table-turning shenanigans of the movie’s final stretch fall hopelessly flat. It’s ultimately difficult to recall a horror flick that squanders its above-average setup quite as firmly as Preservation, with Denham’s obvious talent behind the camera apparently not extending to his abilities as a screenwriter.

** out of ****