Girls go camping, things go wrong

There’s something almost primeval about the way the characters here conduct themselves. Cut off from civilisation with no technology to help them, the women here need to resort to the bare minimum to stay alive, and here is a gritty, unflinching survival drama that is impressively made, with brisk action and nasty surprises here and there.

When three female childhood friends decide to go away together on a camping trip, they put their differences aside and try their best to have a good time. Something about sleeping with the wrong man put some awkward tension between Abby (Katie Aselton) and Lou (Lake Bell) whereas the one caught between the conflict, Sarah (Kate Bosworth), is playing peace-keeper among the trio. Despite some explosive verbal arguments, the trio’s lives are at least safe, until they run into three men: Henry (Will Bouvier) Derek (Jay Paulson) and Alex (Anslem Richardson), all of them seemingly harmless at first, but when one of them can’t take an ultimate “no” as an answer at the end of some full-on flirtation, all hell breaks loose.

The men have guns (actual firing guns, not referring to their anatomy here), the women have nothing, except possibly some knowledge about the island they’re on. It’s an impossible situation but the game is on, and they need to fight to even have a chance to get off the remote island alive. Everything escalates beautifully up to this point, and there is genuine worry and concern as to just how the three of them will be coming out on top in this ridiculously out-matched scenario.

And as with many thrillers carrying this kind of synopsis, it’s inevitable that some characters make silly decisions and do some downright bizarre things that you know will get them killed at some point. Despite their lives being at risk, they find the time to talk about the unresolved elephant in the room – and manage to find closure whilst covered in blood, cuts and bruises. But with stupidity comes a body count, which isn’t an entirely bad thing.

By the time you see the plot resolving, there will have been a decent amount of fun, some brutal fights, and a satisfying conclusion that doesn’t offer any deadly last-minute twists, but a wholly acceptable one nonetheless.