The Lonely Ones

No-budget backwoods monster flick is actually pretty innovative and rewarding

MADE IN 2004 AND RELEASED IN 2006, "The Lonely Ones" is an ultra-low budget cabin-in-the-woods slasher chronicling the adventures of nine college students (five girls and four guys) who vacation in a big modern cabin in Arizona owned by the family of one of the girls. Havoc ensues when they discover that they're the prey of someone or something(s) lurking in the woods.

This is the kind of micro-budget flick that rises above its limitations and offers something fairly impressive and worthwhile. It only cost $100,000 to make and most of that went into lodging & catering for the cast and crew in the middle of nowhere. For the most part, the first 36 minutes are weak with all the limitations of no-budget fare: dubious sound, bad lighting, fuzzy cinematography from hand-held digital cams, etc. But at the 36-minute mark things spark into motion till the end with numerous effective, moving or thrilling sequences. I'll be honest with you, I was about to give-up on the movie because of its shortcomings in the first act, but I'm glad I stayed with it because it turned everything around for a pretty potent backwoods monster movie.

Despite the presence of no less than a dozen characters (featuring a nicely diverse cast) and a spare change budget, director/writer David Michael Quiroz Jr. was able to flesh out the characters with a well-crafted and original script. On top of this, there's a varied score that's pretty effective, even though one long sequence in the second act drones on with the eerie piano. Speaking of the piano, one part is reminiscent of Savatage's "Storm," which is good in my book. The score also includes some moving acoustic guitar pieces and a hard rock/metal piece.

Of the five girls, they're all pretty average-looking (not ugly, just average) with the exception of petite cutie Devanny Pinn as Tifa, who's a unique-looking semi-hottie; and maybe the redhead protagonist, R...