Genre: Horror
Director: Alexandre Aja
Writer: Ben Collins
Cast: Logan Lerman, Jodie Comer, Demian Bichir, Julia Jones, Kelsey Asbille, Iwan Rheon, Michael Cudlitz
Plot: The film begins near a stream where everything seems calm. In the distance we see a couple who quietly get off the raft after rafting. The two of them, a boy and a girl, take off their helmets and fight five. Then the scene comes off and we see the boy running through the woods with a terrified face screaming "Run Julia, run". As long as the boy runs from behind, a female cry is heard shouting "Barry!" At some point the boy stops and realizes that nobody is behind him. He begins to look around in bewildered and frightened calling in a low voice the name Julia. Suddenly he hears disturbing verses coming from the surrounding vegetation until something is about to come out of the vegetation making the boy scream.
On a warm summer evening we see a young couple in love, Jim Tolliver (Logan Lerman) and Kelly Rosset (Jodie Comer). Kelly works as a sales assistant in the Walmart of the city where she lives, while Jim works as a plumber. Kelly prepares a delicious dinner to celebrate the first day off of the two. Meanwhile Jim, on the way home, stops to get a bouquet of red roses and a cute note. Kelly is overjoyed when she sees them. After eating, the two sit on the sofa and watch a movie called "The Letter J". At the end of the film Kelly compliments Elle Fanning saying that she was really good at that film. After that the two start watching funny videos on Youtube until they find a short video of a couple of years before it depicts a blonde-haired mermaid swimming in the middle of a group of dolphins following a boat. The video was shot by a guy named Mike Galloway (Iwan Rheon). In addition to that video there seem to be other rather similar videos but they all seem decidedly fake. The two note another more recent video posted by Mike that portrays a mysterious reptilian creature with a crocodile head in the middle of a forest while Mike is hidden behind a bush. The two lovers kindly discuss whether the video is real or not, especially Kelly is definitely skeptical. Under that video and also under the other videos there are many offensive comments that mock Mike's video calling it a fake video. Jim, a lover of strange stories and adventures (Let's see for a moment his small studio where there are books and even a poster that represents the Bigfoot) falls in love with the video and continues to watch it all night trying to understand if it was true or not blocking it in every frame. Kelly, however, after a while goes to sleep a little bored and leaves Jim on the sofa. The next morning Jim prepares pancakes and brings them to his girlfriend who is still sleeping. Then he manages to convince Kelly, a little more reluctant to believe this type of story, to take a trip to that area the following weekend. The journey was simple with many photos of wonderful landscapes. At one point, near a stunning landscape, Kelly is shot to take a photograph. Jim is behind her and takes a ring from his pocket and is about to make the marriage proposal to his girlfriend, but then he puts it in his pocket for lack of courage. When they are about to arrive in Hollow Creek, Jim tells his girlfriend that he has made an appointment with Mike Galloway, but Kelly is not particularly happy because from some published videos he seems a somewhat unstable person and does not seem a mentally healthy person. So he says that a type of party should be organized that weekend in honor of this mysterious creature that citizens call "Croc". The girl snorts and convinces her boyfriend that she would decide the next trip.
Once they arrive in Hollow Creek, the couple sees that people are preparing the city for the party. The two look around and decide to stop for lunch in a diner called "The tongue of the crocodile". Shortly after entering and seeing the particular furniture, they notice a woman dressed in military trousers and a black tank top, Christine (Julia Jones), who has just attached two photos of two people and a notice of disappearance on the wall, then asks the bartender a gin and tonic thanking him for allowing her to attach the photos to the wall. The bartender nods with a smile and turns to prepare the alcoholic drink. As long as Jim is immersed in reading the menu, giggling to himself for the imaginative names of the dishes, Kelly gets up and approaches the woman. Kelly apologizes to Christine and asks who those missing people are. The woman, however kind, says it is her sister Julia and her boyfriend Barry. At that point Jim also approaches. Christine says Julia and Berry had gone to those areas a few days earlier to go rafting and have disappeared since that day. Then he asks the two lovers where they are headed and that they will have to be careful. Jim says not to worry and they will be careful. Shortly after their hot sandwich arrives and the couple likes to see that the sandwich resembles the shape of a crocodile. Shortly afterwards, during a walk around the city, they see a large mural with the crocodile man as the protagonist and start talking to an old lady who tells them that Hollow Creek is falling into ruins and the city youth is trying to attract some ' of tourism. The news questions the veracity of the video and that the whole thing can be a kind of advertising stunt. So the two meet up with Mike. Mike is revealed to have disturbed and restless behavior, especially when the two lovers ask if his videos are real or not. After meeting Galloway, who reveals the exact place where he shot the footage and what he saw that night, the two are stopped by an eccentric hunter, Lassiter (Demian Bichir) who tells the couple about all his deeds and shows the photos of his trophies with the killing of various dangerous animals in Africa and South America. Among the photos there is one in which it is together with other people with a dead animal on the ground that Jim does not recognize but Lassiter deflects the speech. Lassiter also has a necklace made with the teeth of various animals. The man says he has heard them speak to Galloway and offers to accompany them in the search for the mysterious monster. The man says that the day before he made an excursion into the forest, he found pieces of gray scales and showed them to Jim by pulling them out of his pocket. The camera shows that Christine is leaving the diner and watches the scene of the hunter's meeting with the two boys from the inside with a stern air.
Meanwhile, Galloway returns home and re-reads all the messages of dislike towards him, decides to return to the woods because he is tired of being laughed at on the Internet and wants to find the creature again to show everyone the evidence. He goes to the bathroom, he washes her face and takes some pills from an orange container, she gets ready, takes her backpack and everything needed to camp, goes to the forest and starts walking. The camera shows that something is following him and observes Galloway in the vegetation. It is dusk and throw the curtain. Shortly thereafter he hears strange noises and sees a shadow through the reptile-shaped tent. We see that this figure goes around the tent and sniffs it. Mike slowly takes the camera trying not to make any noise but suddenly his sharp claws close the curtain. Mike manages to escape but is joined shortly after by the monster who jumps on his back making him roll on the ground. The boy has a significant back injury caused by dangerous claws and is unable to get up and starts crawling in search of something to defend himself with but finds nothing. At this point Galloway finally takes the cell phone and with a kind of smile begins to take back the monster while he is approaching growling. At this point the creature, with a leap, approaches and begins to devour the boy while he is still alive. When he finishes devouring him, we see that the creature leaves trampling on Mike's cell phone.
The following day Lassiter and the two lovers meet in the center of Hollow Creek to go to the forest. As long as the two lovers are about to enter Lassiter's black colored pickup, Christine also arrives. From the stern look that they exchange and Lassiter it is understood that the two had already met and the woman practically immediately accuses Lassiter of knowing something he does not say about the disappearance of his sister and joins the group getting into the car despite Lassiter had asked her to Leave. Jim is sitting in the front and tries to joke with Lassiter, who tells him to be quiet for a while while in the back seat Christine looks out of the window with a concentrated and a little pissed air. Next to her, the kind Kelly tells Christine that she has the feeling that she will be able to hug her sister again. Christine nods shyly. When they arrive near the entrance to the forest they encounter a threatening large woodcutter (Michael Cudlitz) who shouts to go back and starts threatening them by slapping even Kelly and telling them to go back to the city. There is a fight and Lassiter shoots the lumberjack's leg and then binds him to a tree saying he would free him on their return. Despite the fact that the two boyfriends, especially Kelly, are a little afraid of following Lassiter, Christine instead looked at everything with a detached air. Shortly thereafter, they also meet a young deer that the hunter pretends to shoot, making fun of the two young men and camp for rest, while Christine is more detached and spends all her time checking Lassiter. As long as the two lovers look at the stars on a fallen trunk near the tent, Jim begins to say the name of the constellations and then says "This is the constellation of the ring .." and holds out the ring asking his beloved if he wanted to marry him. Kelly lowers her confused look from the phrase and when she sees the ring she gets excited and hugs Jim. Christine and Lassiter are inside the tent instead. The woman smiles for a moment when she hears what is happening outside until a moment later, taking a bottle from Lassiter's backpack, she accidentally finds a pendant in the hunter's pocket, the same as her sister's. Christine quickly takes Lassiter's rifle that was resting on one side of the tent and threatens the man by aiming the rifle on his head and telling him to reveal the truth. Lassiter says he found it in the vegetation in the previous days. Christine does not believe in the words of man. At that moment the two young men also enter the tent and are frightened to find Christine with the rifle pointed at the hunter. At that point the man says to lower the rifle and begins to reveal some details. He says that the world has many secrets and that there are many creatures that humans do not know or consider only myths and legends. Jim immediately asks if the Lochness monster exists, Lassiter rolls his eyes and looks at the boy with an irritated air. Kelly looks at Jim and gently tells him to think before speaking sometimes. He says there is a very dangerous monster in these places and he wanted to kill him. Kelly asks how he knows this information and the man says he was part of an organization that had the job of capturing or even killing these creatures before abandoning him for differences of ideas. At this point Kelly asks why he asked her and Jim to go with him if he knew the monster was so dangerous. Christine anticipates Lassiter's words by saying that he would probably use them as bait or as food for the carnivorous monster. Jim then snaps and punches Lassiter who begins to hold his nose, which loses a few drops of blood. At that point, Lassiter silences everyone and says he is silent indicating that he has heard something. Everyone was silent, holding their breath and looking around. Suddenly a disturbing growl. Lassiter says softly that the creature was not supposed to be there, but a few kilometers away. At that moment, to everyone's surprise, Christine pushes the hunter out of the tent and closes the zipper. Lassiter punches the tent saying to let him in and he doesn't even have a weapon. At that point he looks in his pockets and finds only a knife. At this point two green eyes shine near him and Lassiter starts to run away.
The camera follows Lassiter as he runs, feeling as if the creature is chasing him. After a while, Lassiter stops for a moment to catch his breath and finds a completely torn curtain (Galloway's tent) and begins to worry when he sees a lot of blood nearby and pieces of human flesh. He pulls out the knife and orders the monster to show up. Shortly thereafter he hears noises and is surprised by his claws behind him and carried into the vegetation. Shortly afterwards the man wakes up in a kind of cave and appears to be immobilized. He sees various wounds in his body and his vision seems clouded as if the monster has poisoned him or something. Suddenly the monster appears behind him and the man begins to tremble. The creature slowly approaches with its claws and begins to touch its cheeks and throat until at some point it scratches it violently by opening a large cut in its throat making it bleed to death in a few seconds. The camera shows the blood soaking Lassiter's clothes.
Meanwhile, Jim kisses Kelly inside the tent trying to calm her down, while Christine checks the situation. The three hear noises and Kelly kneels on the ground covering her mouth. Jim looks out of a hole and sees a human figure full of blood. Jim recognizes her as one of the people in the photos of the missing people in the restaurant and warns Christine. Christine immediately leaves the tent, the two girls look at each other and hug each other before Julia (Kelsey Asbille) falls to the ground almost unconscious. The girl is taken to the tent and in shock continues to repeat that she was rafting with her boyfriend when a creature attacked them near the river and chased them in the forest. Christine begins to caress, pamper and gently talk to Julia. Julia seems to calm down and calm down. He asks for water and food because he hasn't eaten for a long time. She says that she was injured and then passed out and that she was in a kind of cave and a rectiloid monster is playing with her. Kelly tells Christine that the wound on the girl's leg seems serious to her and that she is getting infected and that she needs treatment. The characters decide that if they stay there they would be just expendable victims and decide to quickly return to retrieve the car. While the group is returning, Julia is helped by Jim and Christine to walk. Julia seems to be getting weaker and sore in the leg while the two trying to encourage her. Suddenly the monstrous creature, with a great leap, attacks Julia making Jim and Christine fall to the ground. The monster immediately kills Julia with a bite in the neck while Christine tries to stop him but is thrown against a tree by the monster and then looks at Jim and Kelly. The crocodile-like humanoid creature holds Lassiter's arm and eats it in front of them. After a moment of shock, Jim and Kelly start running hoping to guess the right way back to their car. The creature also took the shotgun that had fallen to the ground and slammed it to the ground damaging it. At this point Christine, half amazed, gets up and shouts angrily at the creature who turns around growling. The girl pulls out two large knives and positions herself in a fighting position to face the creature. The two begin to face each other, Christine has proved combative, tenacious managing to dodge the first attacks of the monster. From Christine's movements, one can guess that she was an expert in martial arts or at least was part of some specialized branch of the army. The creature tries to grab the woman but with a slip she passes under the monster's legs being behind the monster, she quickly gets up and plants the knife on the thick skin of the monster that leaks from the wound of the bluish liquid. Immediately the creature makes a kind of roar and strongly moves its tail causing the woman to fall to the ground. The monster pounces on the woman to bite her. Christine manages to roll and turn on her side and the creature bites the woman's right shoulder. She instinctively double-kicks the creature's abdomen and stands up screaming in pain. She looks at the wound, seems to be very deep and is losing a lot of blood. At this point he grimaces giving a look at his sister's corpse on the ground. Christine tries everything and runs towards the creature. But the monster takes it and throws it away. Christine bangs her head violently against a tree, probably dying instantly. After the battle, after removing the knife from his back, the monster approaches Christine and looks at her for a few seconds, perhaps thanking her for being a worthy opponent. He then picks her up and puts her next to his sister Julia, then quickly runs away. Meanwhile, Kelly and Jim have arrived near the forest exit as they heard Christine's cry shortly before. The two hope that the woman is fine. The creature jumps from a tree right in front of them and launches on the girl, Jim with an excellent reflex stands in front of her and defends her and is injured in the chest by claws. So the monster tries to get closer to the girl. As long as he is on the ground, Jim tries to block the monster's paw by looking into Kelly's eyes. The creature gets angry and immediately kills poor Jim. Kelly is reached almost immediately and the screen goes completely black.
Slowly Kelly's eyes begin to open and she immediately screams when she sees the woodcutter she met a few hours before he is staring at her next to her. So, he realizes that there was only his head stuck on a wooden pole. Kelly realizes that she is in a kind of wet cave and starts walking. On the way he finds backpacks and various objects that belonged to people who disappeared over time in those places. She also finds Christine and Julia's bodies leaning on each other. Kelly approaches two and strokes Christine's hair for a moment saying "I'm so sorry". A few meters away are Jim's torn clothes. Desperate Kelly punches the cave wall. After a while Kelly manages to find her way out of the cave and seems to find something on the ground that she can use as a weapon. Kelly looks at the sky, the sun is setting So the camera moves and shows us the creature, above a tree, who is looking at the girl and then suddenly jumps to the ground running in the opposite side while in the distance a group of travelers breaks their car near the forest. The hunt begins.
The last scene of the film we see a series of black vans arriving in Hollow Creek.
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