The Hiking Trip gets an “A” for effort but a “C” for execution. It had the potential to be a solid low-budget movie, but those glimpses of promise can’t hide the fact that this is strictly amateur night in Dixie.
Tracy, played by Kortney Adams, goes off on a hiking trip with her friends. Something happens and she wakes up in a mental institution, battered and confused. The only person she interacts with is her psychiatrist, but he hides behind a security camera, looking quite a bit like Hal from 2001. Reality twists as he leads her through her memories, trying to reconstruct what happened on that trip, and what is true and what is delusion battle in her mind.
What I liked the most about this movie is that it tries for atmosphere and suspense rather than outright blood-and-guts horror like most low-budget thrillers. It tries, but it really doesn’t succeed. I feel almost like my grandmother here: “They tried, bless their hearts.” Unfortunately for them, watching someone try and fail doesn’t always make for an entertaining movie, and the majority of The Hiking Trip just kind of meanders along and is greatly hampered by the poor locations, sets, and special effects.
There are times when a low-budget movie can transcend its budget and entertain on camp, a strong story or performance, or sheer manic energy, like the first two Evil Dead movies; but there’s nothing particularly strong to make this film worth noticing. It’s competent on a technical level, I suppose, and it’s obvious that they put a lot of work into making it as good as it possibly could, but that only takes it so far and there was nothing else to take it further. As much as I dislike crapping all over something people put a lot of care into (shut up, I do), it just wasn’t that good.
No specifications were given for the audio or video. What I can say is that it was presented fullscreen and that, while it’s obvious they had a very low budget, there were no problems with either the audio or the video.
There are moments when the film shows promise, but there’s nothing that marks it as something special or even particularly entertaining. B movie aficionados may want to rent this, but otherwise I’d say pass.
Seminal Films presents The Hiking Trip. Directed by Robert Parent. Starring Kortney Adams, Kelly Cook, David Lawrence, Dennis Lemoine, and Leah Polacco. Written by David Lawrence and Karen Parent. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated NR. Released on DVD: April 20, 2010. Available at Amazon.
