Godforsaken (2022)

This movie has one of the best, genuinely scary, openings I’ve seen in a while which throws you straight into the eerie feel that permeates through the whole of Godforsaken. After this, the film barely lets you stop for breath during its fairly short runtime as it races through its plot and throws all manner of scares at you which gradually become more visceral with quite a bit of blood thrown around. This approach makes for an enjoyable watch but does leave something to be desired in terms of characterization which would have made us more invested. Towards the end, it does feel like the film sacrifices meaningful answers for some big visuals so it will leave you scratching your head a little trying to fill in the blanks which is a shame because it’s a very interesting idea but it still gives you enough to think over.

The small town setting works well as it doesn’t take long for the rumors of the miracles to spread, so we quickly see an array of interesting characters coming in hope for their own miracle. The snow also makes for some great contrast when the blood starts flowing. The film does fall into the traps of found footage films where it’s not clear why people would carry the camera along with them when facing peril, and when they run with it we can’t see the events clearly. The soundtrack could also use some work but the film does avoid the typical pitfalls of low-budget horror as the acting is good, and the gore is well done and effective. It’s hard to say more without giving too much away but I’d say Godforsaken is worth your time.

The found footage element gets hard to watch towards the end as all hell breaks loose and the camera motion goes crazy. If you push through this though you’ll find an interesting, scary movie that will give you a lot to think about.