Another Kind (2013)

Don't waste your time, unless you like a movies with major plot gaps about morons that go on a 27 mile hike in the mtns in the middle of winter, don't know Anything about the wilderness, and have nonsense endings. If you do, then have at it!

Released in 2013, "Another Kind" details events when four friends take a four-day snowshoeing hike in the Catskills and experience strange occurrences.This is a micro-budget small film, reportedly only costing $120,000, but it's so competently made it comes across as a bigger movie. It basically takes "The Blair Witch Project" template and makes a better movie. The four actors are all convincing and the dialogue, which might seem to contain a little too much bickering, is fairly realistic (I've been on trips with couples who frequently argue, so I know it happens). The first half hour is pretty humdrum, but then the events and filmmaking magic take you into the story. I almost never get creeped-out during movies, but a few parts of "Another Kind" were seriously creepy. Unlike some mystery movies that keep everything a mystery at the end, "Another Kind" spells it out, which will be a turn-off to some and a good thing to others. The film is short-and-sweet at 76 minutes and was shot in Catskill Mountains, New York, with the opening filmed in Brooklyn.GRADE: B***SPOILER ALERT*** (Don't read further if you haven't seen the movie)The ending reveals that there's an extraterrestrial attack on earth, so how does this explain the eerie events that the hikers experience. Evidently, the aliens assigned to this particular sector were toying with the hikers, like a cat with a mouse. They were just having some good sport with these easily-conquered low-life humans.

Expected this to be yet another tedious "found footage" movie but was pleasantly surprised to find that not the case. Does an admirable job of building mood, altho the characters are basically too stupid to be sympathetic. I mean, you go hiking in the woods without a map or compass? Really? And fall to arguing as soon as you're in the car? Meh. But the overall effectiveness is not greatly diminished by this cliché of genre films. Also affecting the movie is the lack of effective cinematography for a film set in the very scenic Catskill Mountains of New York. However, what is there does work. This was obviously shot on location somewhere it was hilly and wooded, and in the real winter, so that makes up for the otherwise lackluster camera work. The mood is sufficiently weird and creepy to achieve the atmosphere it's going for, and the ending out of left field is pure Twilight Zone stuff. Not a bad hour-and-sixteen minutes.

I can see why many people will dislike this movie. It's a bit slow if you're looking for action rather than atmosphere, many details are left unexplained, and what is explained comes way out of left field. But I felt the bizarre and unexplainable events only added to the creepy atmosphere of the cold wilderness. I actually found myself wishing the filmmakers had left even more to the imagination, as the underlying explanation seemed to cheapen the rest of the movie somewhat. I still found myself quite satisfied when the credits rolled, but I think a more ambiguous ending would have been a better fit and given this movie a more lasting feeling of horror.So while not without its flaws, overall I felt it was a much more interesting movie than its current rating would suggest. It reminded me of YellowBrickRoad, another creepy and bizarre wilderness horror with widely divided opinions.