Doug tries to keep his wits about him and complete his five-day adventure but his instincts are telling him to run. Of course, he doesn’t.
The found footage genre has pretty much run its course over the years since The Blair Witch Project made it the darling of low-budget filmmakers everywhere. However, to my knowledge, there hasn’t been a found footage take on survival reality shows like Survivorman or Man vs. Wild. Man Vs., a Canadian film directed by Adam Massey, has rectified that oversight. And, I have to say, that it is a rather pleasant, if flawed, surprise.
Doug Woods (Chris Diamantopoulos) is a Bear Grylls-type adventurer who is about to launch the second season of his survival show. A recent TV deal has given the show a larger audience and better ratings could propel the show into a money-making venture for Woods, his brother, Terry (Drew Nelson), and his producers, Bill (Michael Cram) and Angie (Kelly Fanson). The pressure is on to make the footage from this outing extraordinary.
As is the case with these survival shows, Doug gets dropped off alone in the wilderness and begins to film his routine of setting up camp, building a shelter, and starting a fire. But, soon, it becomes increasingly obvious that he’s not alone in the forest. He hears noises in the night, finds his campsite tampered with, and his game traps emptied. Doug tries to keep his wits about him and complete his five-day adventure but his instincts are telling him to run. Of course, he doesn’t.
Chris Diamantopoulos, as Doug, is onscreen in nearly every scene. Thankfully, his performance is effective and quite believable. Unfortunately, some of the decisions his character makes are head-scratchers, but I guess this would be a very short movie if Doug just left at the first sign that he wasn’t dealing with a bear or a wolf.
While not strictly a found footage film — there is a musical score and there are plenty of shots that are not filmed by the protagonist — be aware that Man Vs. does feature a lot of extremely shaky and fast-moving camerawork like other films in the genre. Overall, though, the photography and special effects are excellent for a film with this type of budget.
Man Vs. is a movie best watched with as little information as possible. Spoilers abound online, so I won’t add to them with my review. If you enjoy suspense and tension, Man Vs. serves up a healthy amount for the first two-thirds of the film. Your ultimate enjoyment of the entire movie rests on your interpretation of the last 30 minutes. They’re quite interesting.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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