What’s It All About
The 1 Sentence Summary of The Retreat
Two friends on a bachelor party go hiking in the woods, drink some “herbal tea”, and get hunted by a Wendigo.
Cast and Director
Written and directed by Bruce Wemple, and starring Grant Schumacher and Dylan Grunn, this slow burn movie twists and turns into something incomprehensible.
Spoiler Alert
We’d much rather you watch the movie than read some of our favorite and least favorite parts about it. But if you have to know, check out our breakdown below.
One of the better scenes is when Ryan (Chris Cimperman) gets eaten by the Wendigos. He is wandering in the woods looking for Gus (Grant Schumacher) and Adam (Dylan Grunn) when suddenly he is surrounded by Wendigos who attack and eat him.
It’s hard to choose a favorite character when the entire movie is a mangled mess. If there was any redeeming characters in the film, it’s Adam (Dylan Grunn). He tolerates him friend as he has a mini-meltdown while hiking in the woods.
When Gus and Adam are sitting around the campfire, Gus and Adam share some “herbal” tea. As a result, the both begin hallucinating. When they do, Gus comes face-to-face with a Wendigo for the first time.
This movie is just a mangled mess. The premise was good, but is quickly destroyed with a constant guessing game of reality vs. hallucination. Without the clarity of what is going on and no clean reveal at the end, the audience is left with a mess of a film with little redeeming qualities other than finally seeing the credits roll.
Get More
Scare Critic Picks
Did you like The Retreat? If so, check out these other terrifyingly good movies:
Summary
Scare Critics Say: AVOID
Scare Critic Review
It's hard to recommend The Retreat. Between the mess of a storyline, the mediocre acting, and the poor quality of the monster, this movie leaves a lot to be desired. The only saving aspect of the film is the atmosphere.
Scares Breakdown
- Monster
- Isolation
- Canibalism
Good
- Atmosphere (woods/night)
- Concept (of the Wendigo)
Bad
- Confusing storyline
- Mediocre acting
- Monster is poorly visualized/crafted
- Very little scares/no jump scares
- Lack of quality character development
