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I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

RELEASED IN 2010 and written/directed by Richard Swindell, "Pelt" chronicles the misadventures of seven obnoxious youths in Kentucky when they embark on a backpacking hike deep in the unknown woods and evidently tick off some inbred whack job.Considering that "Pelt" is a micro-budget movie compared to 2003' "Wrong Turn," I was impressed with how well-made it is. Sure, several of the youths are mostly annoying at first, but it's so exaggerated it's obviously camp; plus their arses are all humbled in good time, BIG TIME. Moreover, the three girls are appealing in a girl-next-door type of way despite their initial obnoxiousness, particularly Amber Marie Bollinger as Jessica and Ashley Watkins as Jenny (while blonde Sarah Zurell ain't nothing to sneeze at). The Irish bloke is easily the most irksome male, but he's willing to boldly sacrifice everything to save one of the girls. That's not just likable, but noble and heroic!Needless to say, unlike "Wrong Turn," the movie mixes-in comedy and parody reminiscent of 2007's "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End," but some people apparently didn't get the memo. In any case, while nothing great, "Pelt" is worth catching if you like backwoods slasher flicks. I actually like it better than "Wrong Turn" (it has far better women) and it's close to being on par with "Wrong Turn 2." Not to mention, Amber Marie Bollinger (Jessica) scampering around the woods in flimsy attire is worth the price of admission.THE MOVIE RUNS 87 minutes and was shot in Northern California, which is a weak stand-in for Kentucky because anyone who's been to Kentucky knows it doesn't look like Northern California.GRADE: B

Stop me if you've already heard this one before: A group of friends trespass on private property so they can gain access a hard to find nature trail. Naturally, they find themselves deep in the remote woods with a ferocious redneck killer (hulking Larry Laliberte) who doesn't take kindly to any strangers on his land.While writer/director Richard Swindell delivers a few effectively wince-inducing moments of nasty and gruesome violence and deserves some praise for giving this film a strong and unwavering nihilistic streak, he alas crucially fails to offer a single remotely likable or sympathetic character; instead each and every last person present herein is so incredibly annoying and unappealing that one quite simply doesn't care if any of these insufferably obnoxious jerks lives or dies, which in turn completely negates any tension this picture needs to really work. Moreover, the hackneyed pain-by-the-numbers script not only suffers from an appalling excess of tin-eared profane dialogue, but also doesn't do anything fresh or inspired with the trite premise (for example, it's pretty obvious the token black guy isn't going to survive). And while the gals are hot, there's unfortunately no gratuitous female nudity to compensate for this picture's glaring weaknesses. On the plus side, Jeff Samuelson's sharp cinematography makes neat occasional use of dissolves and overhead camera angles and the capable cast do their best with the shoddy material. But overall this one sizes up as a real clunker.

It's a clichéd one star movie but I'll give it two because of Amber Bollinger. She's hot and runs around in her panties in the woods. Now for the bad. The characters are so annoying you want them all to die. The plot has been done a million times before (see "Wrong Turn" for one example.) My only hope is that the writer and director never make another movie again. In fact, they should be ashamed of themselves for not having an original thought in their collective imaginations. It's rare you get a chance to make a film, so why give the world a boring retread? On the other hand, Amber Bollinger needs to make many more movies. She reminds me of a young Bobbie Phillips. Unfortunately, her character in this film is so annoying that no one other than a few pervy fanboys will remember her.

Pelt was a throwaway for me, a way to kill a few hours while doing something else, and I almost turned it off after the first five minutes, but I'm glad I stayed with it. Ultimately I put aside what I was doing and gave it my full attention.Those who tuned out after the first five minutes can hardly be blamed. The movie tries very aggressively to make you dislike the characters in the opening sequences, which is inexplicable as the most effective and memorable horror movies set up the victims as real people so that you actually care about them (think "Audition"). Very bad move making the girls obnoxious cock teases and the boys frat-boy jerks -- I guess this was done to make you want to see them killed? To lighten up the savaging to come? Definitely a misstep, as the movie has lots of work to do to overcome that initial distaste -- it really opens like a revenge of the nerds type scenario, except without the nerds, only with the arrogant popular and beautiful snots.But I hung with it and it quickly evolved into a tight little stalker flick, the characters shedding their one dimensional arrogance and actually assuming fairly human traits -- surprisingly human in fact. Of course the conceit of the plot is nothing new -- the stalkers are your typical back woods stalkers, and they are even doing what hick serial killers seem to most aspire to, but that doesn't really matter.What matters most in a movie like this is watching a person or a small group be hunted and trying to deal with that situation, trying to survive. This movie does that remarkably well, and once the action begins will keep you engaged and interested, with more than the normal share of jolts.I wouldn't be reluctant to suggest that you just skip the first 15 minutes of the movie altogether, as it's aggressively loathsome, and I suspect that's the reason that the movie has such a terrible rating. It might be a 3 for the first 15 minutes but it quickly becomes an 8 once the action starts.