The Trek (2009)

Written by Lola Wallace and Tom Devlin
Directed by Lola Wallace
Featuring Erin Fleming, Brett Hundley, Tom Devlin, Trent Haaga, John Karyus, Eric Spudic, Al Burke
2009, Waltzing Devil Productions/1313 FX

After Lola Wallace's directorial horror debut (the 2007 horror movie Legend of the Sandquatch), the FX mastery of 1313FX (the company she owns with Tom Devlin) has been involved in many recent horror films. And it's no surprise: their practical horror effects are amazing. The Sandsquatch monster in their first film was nothing short of fantastic, so I am not surprised by the crazy Neanderthal-hill-people they manufactured and the gory blood-drenched scenes that serve as a terror-inducer in their latest film The Trek. I was, however, disappointed by the storyline and the not-so-stellar direction...

The Trek begins with two young recently married college-agers set out on a 'honeymoon' hike across what looks like the California hills. Kim (Erin Fleming) and Keith (Brett Hundley) are a sweet pair, as acknowledged by their family in true-crime documentary flashbacks narrated by an Unsolved Mysteries-style Trent Haaga with black suit and matter-of-fact attitude. We're shown the last place the couple was known to have been, and the grisly discoveries made there by the cops. What we don't know is what happened to Kim and Keith. But we're about to find out.

Kim (Erin Fleming) and Keith (Brett Hundley) on a romantic hike

After about 30 minutes of getting to know Kim and Keith Russell, through their family and friends, and through watching them hold hands and backpacking around semi-uninhabited areas in the California Hills, a nightmare begins; a strange-looking old woman comes out of the woods and accosts them at their tent.

Strange woman

She seems unable to speak and her actions are threatening. She's ugly, with bulbous face and sagging wilderness boobs. Keith is overcome with his need to protect himself and his wife, and he kills the woman in a grisly and unnecessarily horrible way. Kim is appalled at how Keith reacted, and she can't understand his need to kill the old woman. Keith isn't really sure he understands either, but from the particularly happy grin on his face as he bashed her head in, we know that he liked it.

Savage Grin

Moments later, the old woman's mate stumbles along. Complete with bulging eye, Neanderthal-stagger, and hairy wilderness belly, the man chases down Keith and Kim to get his revenge. Apparently, there is a race of Neanderthal-like primitive people living in this forest not very far from civilization who have never been discovered. They are also brutal and murderous and hate outsiders.

Here is where the life or death, 'kill or be killed', 'who's the monster now?' scenario comes into play. It's a scenario we've seen many many times in horror movies, and done much better in other films than The Trek. The moral issues The Trek tries to raise are not backed up by the acting or the directing, and it's like being hit over the head with a hammer, repeatedly, as the message that 'we are all monsters under the right circumstances' is pounded into us.

Kim gets brutalized by a Neanderthal

With a complicated series of events including the mutilation of the not-quite-dead-yet old woman, and a severed penis-rape, The Trek is certainly horrific and awesome (if you like that kind of thing, which, admit it, you do). But it's not a great film because of the flawed direction the script takes. The Trek's main characters, Keith and Kim, are not complicated enough, nor is their horrific experience 'horrific' enough to warrant some of their behavior and reactions. I'm not suggesting murder and mutilation are not 'horrible', but I would expect someone like Keith or Kim to immediately phone police before heading out on a vigilante crazy mission based solely on what they experience in this movie.

The plot, which tries very hard in the beginning to mimic reality, is stretched thin at times later on to allow for cool special effects to enter the storyline. Keith is played by Brett Hundley, who does not come off well. The stark contrast between his inability to convey emotion onscreen and the extremely emotional Kim (Erin Fleming) prevents chemistry from aflourishin'. Fleming's Kim is a reactive and relatable character, although some of the direction later in the film accentuates this to too great an extent, making her dramatic role seem overacted at times. They are a mismatched pair from the get go.

While there are some beautifully artistic shots of the scenery and surrounding woods, none of the cinematography helps the storyline or the characters. In fact, it often hinders. For a film trying so hard to focus on character development this is a bad move. No amount of breathtaking sunsets or blood-spattered rock can make up for the inability of the audience to visually or emotionally relate to Keith or Kim, and The Trek ends up being an effects-heavy movie that does not fulfill the goal of the storyline: to make a movie about human (and inhuman) brutality that gut-wrenches everyone who watches it.

Be impressed by this

Don't believe that you won't be grossed out and impressed by what's going in the film in terms of pure gore, blood, and special effects. Because you will be. The Trek has some horrifying gore moments that will impress the hell out of you, but could have gotten a lot more use out of focusing more on the effects and visuals and less on their characters. Wallace's strengths lie more in the telling of visual horrors than in creating a multifaceted character in an extremely emotional situation.

The Trek also leaves the viewer with a lot of unanswered questions and unexplained occurences, which is never satisfying.