The Long Walk Home

Coming in strong on bloodied and bruised trampers on the run from an unseen force or monster, team Such and Such presented a film with urgency and lush cinematic framing to the proceedings. Seemingly inspired by both BIRDBOX and PREDATOR, a heartwrenching choice of whether to run on or go back for a loved one possibly killed by the predator gave it a humanistic touch, and it was a clever move to focus the running time on the conclusion of the hunt.

By quite literally entering the scene late and leaving early, this was textbook leave things to the viewer's imagination to put the pieces together and was the better for it. Believable stress and desperation are quite difficult emotions for actors to pull off, but they handled this well for the most part. I also particularly liked the use of the thermal camera to jazz things up.

For mine, I did feel that the story took inspiration a bit too liberally from the John McTiernan classic, and whilst really well shot and edited, I noticed that the shots inside the car were particularly grainy or compressed, which took me out of the moment a little bit. Sound was particularly impressive, however.

Story: 3/5
Technical: 3.5/5
Elements: 3.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

This film by team Such & Such had great opening shots and it was nice to be taken straight into the middle of the action and drama. The cinematography was nice and pleasing to watch. The audio clipped a bit in places which I found a little distracting, but performances by the actors were excellent.

The choice of location was great, the setting and the natural soundscape really added to the mood of the film, along with good music choices.

I found the story a little predictable, however, and reminiscent of some existing films. And it seemed a little overly inevitable that she told him not to go back because he'd die, and then she went back, and then naturally the 'predator' appears in the thermal camera so they're probably both going to die.

Aside from that, it was well executed, and I did enjoy watching it, so good work team such & such!