Michael Ledo Cabin in woods, cue spinner, and we get axe slasher. Noah (Neal Bledsoe) and his girlfriend Anna (Lauren Powell) go to his parent's secluded mountain home, one that is much nicer than anything I have owned or will own. He also takes a long his brother Blake (Brett Haley) an obnoxious, rejected, frustrated individual who is frequently called a DH. To pour salt in the wound his ex-gf Cara (Lydia Hyslop) comes along as well as a college jock friend (Jesse Patch) who wants to hook up with Cara.The film opens with bad acting, bad dialogue and a lame soundtrack and doesn't get any better. There is a story about a Hunter who kills people on the Ridge and that is our killer introduction. Normally these types of films show a killing in the beginning to peak out interest and then relate it later on. This one did not. The killings took place in the dark and were not graphic, even with an axe.The biggest horror was when 4 people were all screaming and talking at the same time. The film attempted to get sexy as Anna takes a dip in a striped bathing suit. She removes her bottoms, which are now flowered and tosses them at her boyfriend, then a moment later has on the original bottoms. Like Ed Wood would say, "Who would notice?" That is how bad the directing and editing was on the film.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

DigitalRevenantX7 A group of friends arrive at a secluded mansion in the middle of the woods in order to unwind for the weekend. But when they arrive, they find the place trashed. After cleaning up, they settle down & tell stories about the Ridge Runner – a crazed survivalist who slaughtered his family before disappearing in the area some years ago. At first, the night goes along nicely but when they find the corpse of the house's caretaker in the pool, the Ridge Runner appears & begins slaughtering his way through the group.The Ridge is an ultra-low budget slasher film conceived as a copy of the Friday the 13th series, except without any hockey-masked killers roaming about, instead having a mysterious survivalist assaulting the cast.For the first 45 or so minutes, nothing happens. Writer-director Brett Haley, who plays the group's most anally-retentive member, writes poor dialogue & has no idea on how to carry the film along without resorting to dull writing. The dialogue that appears in the film seems forced & the background story about the Ridge Runner that they mention is not very interesting.But once the corpse in the pool is found, the film switches gears. Haley might not know how to write good dialogue, but he knows a thing or two about staging brute force shocks. Haley milks the surroundings for all the suspense that he can get – this film has more jumps in its final half-hour than the entirety of most of the Friday the 13th sequels. Not just that, but Haley also turns expectation on its head by featuring a rather unconventional final survivor. Despite its low budget The Ridge is a much more authentic slasher film experience than most of the Friday the 13th sequels.

ASouthernHorrorFan The film is a contemporary horror that draws from the urban legend of The Ridge Runner, a brutal killer out to slaughter anyone who settles on his land. "The Ridge" begins slow and clunky but within the first fifteen minutes the atmosphere becomes a nonstop slaughter fest. Okay maybe a bit more than fifteen minutes but the point is what starts as a questionable flick turns into a real chiller.The story opens with the cliché set-up of friends on a getaway. Only within the first few moments of arriving to the house, nestled in the woods, things get eerie. The dialog is flimsy, random, and doesn't really seem to lead into the story, at least not until the standard "do you know a scary story" moment. That is when we are introduced to the urban legend of the brutal ridge runner. There are moments when the story, even the telling of the legend, feels contrived, but for the most part it is a plausible premise. It is obvious though that most of the writing focused on action and kills based on the weak dialog. So at first the film starts off shaky. But when the sh*t hits the fan, the film almost transforms into something totally new. The special effects are pretty tight. The attention to presenting killer scenes and action sequences is obvious in "The Ridge". The house plays a big role in the film with so many rooms, levels and areas for the killer to pop out from, The night shooting and sound effects help create a traditional horror look, that will be recognizable to horror fans. From the moment the first body is found, explaining the eerie beginning to the film, "The Ridge" really goes full throttle giving total slasher entertainment. The soundtrack at times feels hokey-hallmark-y, but I can over look the style of music used to create an emotional continuity to the story. Overall "The Ridge" turns into a pretty decent indie slasher film. The fact that the horror just happens, with no justification other than a faceless killer mad about loosing his land, only adds to the nightmare. There is some pretty stellar directional choices and cinematography in "The Ridge". Honestly if the dialog and first part of the film would have had the strength that pops up in the second and third act then this would have been a ten for me.

Woodyanders Five friends gather together at a secluded vacation home in the remote mountains where they find themselves being terrorized by a legendary local figure known as the Ridge Runner (a genuinely frightening and impressively physical portrayal by Nathaniel Park). Okay, so the basic premise isn't anything new, but fortunately writer/director Brett Haley compensates for this dearth of originality by relating the engrossing story at a steady pace, ably building and sustaining a spooky atmosphere and a considerable amount of gut-wrenching suspense (the lengthy second half with the young adults being relentlessly stalked and picked off by the vicious maniac is truly tense, gripping, and harrowing), and making fine use of the remote woodland location in order to create a potently unsettling sense of isolation, vulnerability, and utter helplessness. Moreover, the jolting moments of sudden savage violence pack a pretty hard punch. The uniformly sound acting from the capable cast helps a lot: Neal Bledsoe as the cocky and aggressive Noah, Haley as the wimpy and bumbling Blake, Lydia Hyslop as the sweet Cara, Lauren Powell as the perky Anna, and Jesse Patch as the amiable Ethan. This movie deserves extra praise for the exceptionally well-drawn and believable main characters; the heated rivalry between brothers Noah and Blake in particular gives this picture extra dramatic substance. Eric Sheretz's sharp cinematography puts an energetic prowling camera to extremely effective and exciting use. Austin Donahue's rattling score likewise does the nerve-jangling trick. A real sleeper.