Reviewed by Melissa Garza
As I will be going to see Cabin in the Woods tomorrow afternoon (look for the review tomorrow night), I thought it was interesting when I picked up Enter Nowhere which also takes place predominatly in – you guessed it – a cabin in the woods.
Enter Nowhere opens with Jody (Sara Paxton) and her dirt bag boyfriend Kevin (Christopher Denham) robbing a convenience store. Jody holds a gun to the cashier demanding he open the safe. Cryptically, he tells her that he will do so but doesn’t believe she can handle what’s inside. Clearly not amused, she shoots and kills him.
With money in her vest, she jumps in her car and drives only to end up at the cabin which is in the middle of nowhere. She doesn’t know how she got there but it is there she meets two other people who arrived in a similar fashion. Samantha (Katherine Waterston) is a quiet reserved woman who is quite unnerved about being lost.
Tom (Scott Eastwood) is more vocal and more sarcastic about the situation. Soon, however he like the women becomes frantic over their inability to leave. They even venture into the woods to escape only to return to the cabin. Jody makes the observation that it’s like Pac-Man. You go out one door only to arrive on the same board. Tom then questions how to get to the next level.
Things become stranger when the three are convinced they are in different states. Odder still they each believe the year is different. When Samantha tells Jody that it is 1962, she has to catch her breath before telling stating its 1985. Tom comes in and they both run over to ask him what year it is, he answers 2011.
As the three try to figure out what’s going on they see a figure outside. They go outside to see what’s going on and are greeted by a soldier with a gun. The man, Hans (Shaun Sipos) is a German soldier (not a Nazi). Thankfully, Samantha speaks German however at first it doesn’t matter. Hans knocks Tom out and ties him up. Hans attempts to find out what’s going on but things get hostile as he believes the three are holding back information. He isn’t impressed nor does he believe that the three are confused as to how they got there. It is only after a major revelation that he attempts to befriend the trio. Though that isn’t the end of the conflict between them, the knowledge they gain assists in determining their collective fate.
Overall the movie is really interesting. It starts off at a snail’s pace but then takes off. It intrigues and keeps you guessing throughout. There are many different surprises, all of which are tied to the plot. Many times films will throw in a shock that causes one to it be taken aback, however it doesn’t change anything. A good example of this is the Nicholas Cage/Nicole Kidman movie Trespass. Every ten minutes, a character would reveal something but it wasn’t significant to the plot. It didn’t change anything or raise any stakes. In Enter Nowhere that’s not the case. Whenever the characters figure a piece of the puzzle out it helps them determine why they are at the cabin and what they need to do in order to survive.
The one major negative aspect of the movie is that the characters do not evolve of their own volition. Their flaws are just as apparent near the end of the film as at the beginning.
SPOILER ALERT:
Though the conclusion provides an easy out for one character and allows a transformation – it is bestowed upon her by a change of fate rather than something she does.
END OF SPOILER ALERT:
Now, that stated, it is apparent that the lack of evolution was simply because the filmmaker was trying to make a point. Jody didn’t have a mother growing up and had a rough childhood leading her to a life of crime. At one point, she discloses to Samantha that she didn’t have the opportunities children with money did. Though this is a mindset of some, I disagree with it. I dislike the “why not me” mentality and found Jody entirely unlikable because of it. To say that the only way out for someone who lacks easy opportunity is crime sets a bad example. Though I think the filmmaker has every right to his opinion and the film should show his vision, I thought the character would have been more sympathetic had she seen the error of her ways prior to the ending.
The movie is definitely worth watching. You must get through the first half hour but after that it’s not stop intrigue.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10
