This Italian horror initially looked like it might be going somewhere but quickly spirals out of control.It tells the story of a soldier returning from Iraq who decides to clear his head by going to a stunning forest to cycle. There he runs into both trouble and romance in a tale that loses its footing early.Though the idea behind the movie isn't terrible the execution is, the weak cast do not help matters and neither does the finale which defies logic.Some movie endings can turn a bad film around, some can kill a great film outright. But when you have a film which is already pretty damn bad and end it with a twist which is beyond dumb it doesn't leave much of an impression.This award winning Italian effort is truly pitiful and I'd recommend it to no man, woman nor bovine.The Good: Showed early promiseThe Bad: Beyond bad finale Things I Learnt From This Movie: Hunters who mourn the death of a pet are cherry picking idiots So licking toads might actually be a thing

Right up until a few minutes to the ending I was pretty happy with Shadow. This followed my favorite genre of someone getting abducted and having to find their way out, and the additional surprise abductions of the others also got me thinking this one was going to be nice and different from the usual. Early on it was thrilling with the hunters' chase through the woods. When the odd things started happening I was wondering who was doing it, the missing girl? The guy? The other hunter? And when the abductees woke up and saw who had brought them there it was super-creepy, just the way I like. This played out like a standard/good horror flick and for some reason my cable guide put it at two hours long, so when this ended at an hour and a half with that (unsatisfying) ending, I was really, really let down. I'll just say I never cared for those movies who lead you along, only to be ridiculous ending which negates everything you just saw.

I am very very very patient with horror movies, but this one was just unbearable. It is a big mess of ideas stolen from many films : a survivalist twist from Deliverance, the monster from Creep, a bit of torture porn from, well, anywhere. And, ho! a reference to our troubled times of wars and fears - which is just plain shocking because it exploits a real tragedy to pretend the film has a meaning. Add disposable actors, ridiculous hunters-with-big-trucks-and-dog, maybe haunted forest lost very far from civilization and you have a headache. The end doesn't explain anything, it just justify the lack of coherence and originality of the scenario.That kind of films give to the horror genre its bad reputation!

I was compelled to write a review after seeing some negative reviews. A lot of the other reviewers were expecting some kind of Italian horror like argento etc. When they didn't get what they expected they wrote a bad review.I cant stand those geeky Italian horrors from film makers like argento so my views are not tainted by it! just because the directer is Italian doesn't mean its going to be similar to those films dur.This film was nicely filmed in beautiful locations with some smooth editing and quality camera work. I was interested from start to finish in what was happening. For those reviewers who said the film was mixed up obviously didn't get what it was all about. I wont ruin it by telling you.There was some gruesome imaginative torture porn for those of that are into that sort of thing but what kept me interested was the creepy atmosphere and how invested i was in the characters struggle from the start of the film right through to the end. In summary really not bad for a lower budget film, a directer who knows how to capture the moment and not give us enough time to question what just happened before the next drama ensues! This is something Hollywood fails with again and again with every genre so i gave it an 8 / 10