Planning to spend spring break at an isolated cabin in the woods, a group of teenagers suffer grim fates here when they fail to heed the advice of their movie buff friend who recognises the "warning signs" from the countless horror films he has seen. Although nowhere near as well-known, 'There's Nothing Out There' is a curious precursor to the 'Scream' franchise and 'The Cabin in the Woods' with its self-aware approach - and there many amusing moments as the horror buff exclaims "those kids were born to be murder victims" and as he makes side comments like "here's mistake number one". The single best line though has him pausing to think before stating "it's a distinct possibility" when asked if he believes that he is in a horror movie. The fun is not just limited to the dialogue though; there is a zany bit in which a teenager uses a visible boom mike (!) to jump across a room, plus the monster point-of-view shots are highly effective. Unlike 'Scream' though, 'There's Nothing Out There' is never particularly unsettling or scary. The monster always looks fake and hardly menacing and should have remained unseen on camera more often. The elaborate scheme concocted to defeat it is a tad silly too. The film concludes though with a hilarious final line and for a movie made on such a noticeably low budget, it is a notable effort.
Review of There's Nothing Out There
