The Tag-Along Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After a surge of strange disappearances, a young couple learns a supernatural force is involved.

Review: Wow, what a hot mess. This started off fairly interesting but had descended into complete nonsense by the time the credits rolled. The plot description for this film is also far from accurate which contributed to my disappointment. I was under the impression the story would involve a group hiking who inadvertently catches the attention of a ghostly girl dressed in red. Then you can fill in the blanks with the kind of shenanigans that would follow. However, this plot aspect is simply on the peripheral and mentioned only in passing. In fact, they don't fully explain how any of this started since the main guy simply receives a mysterious package...from...they forgot to include that? Yeaaah...you'll notice quite a bit of dead end plot lines like this that we're simply meant to accept at face value.

The story explains that there are these forest spirits or creatures that exist to, I guess, torment individuals. Eh, these things are ill-defined and their motives are vague to say the least. A few characters imply that they abduct someone for each tree cut down in the forest. So what did that have to do with the hikers? While these creatures supposedly turn you into some kind of spirit tree if they get you, there is something about you calling out someone's name to take your place. Whaaat? I don't understand this plot point. How or why would this matter? By the movie's own premise and story, these creatures can't accomplish anything, because people keep forcing them to find replacements. For example, the main guy's grandma is stuck taking the place of her elderly friend. Then the main guy takes grandma's place, followed by some security guard, and ending off with the main chick nearly getting taken too. This is nonsensical as everyone is casually released once the replacement is found. If things weren't weird enough, the story spirals out of control with an abortion subplot. What the fuck is going on here? It certainly didn't help that every character discusses supernatural phenomenon like it's no big deal. Oh, yeah, sure, ghosts--yippee! Even the search and rescue crew are chatting shit about ghosts to someone who--as far as they know--is deeply distraught over her family disappearing!

What bugs me most is that wasted potential of the ghost. Surprisingly, the girl in red was pretty damn creepy. Yet they hardly use the design and ruin the image with shit CGI. What was the point in bothering to create a makeup effect if you're going to plaster CGI everywhere? Why were moths supposed to be important as well? It feels like there were like 4 different movies at play. Obviously something important was lost along the way during production. The film isn't a complete waste, as it leans more to the mediocre side of things, but it's totally incoherent as a whole; there are simply too many plot tangents that go nowhere. It's almost as if the writer's teenage son secretly removed every 5th page from the script after failing to deliver on that vacation to Malibu. That'll teach you, dad! Overall, I can't recommend this film whatsoever. While I'm giving it an average rating for its production quality, design of the main ghost, and general forgiveness of some stupid elements, I can't ignore that the story is chaotically unorganized and unevenly paced.

Notable Moment: When we do see the spirit trees. Having the bodies of people embedded into the trees did look cool and displayed what this film could have been capable of delivering in better hands.

Final Rating: 5/10