Another Kind (2013) User Reviews

I WANT TO BE HOME, LIKE YESTERDAY

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 10 April 2019]

Patrick (Patrick Woodall) leads a camping group of four in the Catskills, in winter. He let's us know he bought the equipment and his BMW cost $80,000. A few miles into the woods Patrick's girlfriend Jamie (Jamie Law) decides sleeping in a real bed in a hotel and not a tent is her idea of "roughing it." She leaves the group and heads back to the car.

Our threesome see some lights, have fun during a sledding montage, run into difficulty and the director has some fun with a red filter. Pretty soon the film feels like a Twilight Zone episode.

This is a low budget film, with no real special effects other than lights and filters. The four no-name actors were convincing in their roles like they were gearing up for Oscar night. Jonathan Blitstein did a fine job creating build up, although I think he gave too much away with the title.

This feature is available on a horror 10-pack. If you liked this try "Yellow Brick Road" or "The Corridor."

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex. Brief nudity (Laura Ramadei)

Poorly written story that delivers nothing but boredom

[ascendant01 · 4/10 · 24 November 2012]

--- This movie suffers from something no movie can succeed without, a well written and complete story. No movie is going to do well if it doesn't hold the watcher's attention, if it doesn't have a linear line of events leading to an eventual ending. Something this movies totally lacks. Oh we have a story in a sense, four people go hiking during the cold winter in an isolated wilderness area but then it just sort of drags along for the rest of the length of the movie not really accomplishing anything. --- In the end of course we are given the news that aliens have attacked and the world is ending or the sky is falling or some such thing. Apparently we are supposed to believe that the mysterious lights and occasional sounds heard at night by the hikers was the aliens. But we get no information on how their friend is killed or why there was a chemical smell in the air at one point or what the lights were at night. We simply have a boring progression of not very scary events that are not explained by action or explanation. Then in the end we are left with one person who finds a road and is almost run over by rushing cars. Of course we are never told why these aliens would want to torment 4(3) helpless Earth kiddies or how they found them alone in the woods. Nor are we told why they buzzed the hikers with colorful lights at night and go about making strange noises or smells, or why they decide to deep freeze one of the hikers. These things go on and on but without any reasoning or explanations as if we should simply know and understand why invading aliens would pick 4 lone individuals to torment while they are apparently destroying the rest of the world in Technicolor. Then miraculously he can receive cell messages again and there are images of the alien attack and written messages about aliens and the end of the world and more mysterious lights appear in the woods and the man appears frozen in fear. We never do find out the answers to all these things other than to learn that aliens have attacked. Then cue in ending credits, play exit music. FINALLY this waste of time is over. Or at least that is my opinion. I gave it a 4 out of 10 and that is being kind hearted in my opinion too.

Not a complete waste of time

[stefou00 · 5/10 · 10 April 2013]

First of all, before watching this movie, read the title a couple of times and, believe me, it pretty much says it all about the threat that the characters will face in it. So if this is not your cup of tea, watch something else.

That being said, aside from the fact that this movie is a very very close relative of The Blair Witch Project in its form and content, it is still somewhat entertaining. Unlike some people, I didn't mind the amateurish tone of the overall project. A few annoying details, however, kept me from being drawn into the story.

1-The continuous fake wind whistling: being a "woodsman" myself, I know that this sound just never happens except in blizzards. In forest, you hear the trees rustling in the wind but not much more. A deep silence would have been more appropriate and would have added to the artistic value of the film. 2-The ominous experimental music: I would have appreciated something simpler that felt less like an arrogant intellectual display. Plus we get to discover, at the end, that the person that created the soundtrack is probably a fan of Bioshock. Hope he liked the last one as I did. 3-The end: the scope of what is revealed to us through the eyes of the surviving character kind of destroys everything the whole movie struggled to establish in the first place. I won't say too much but you'll know what I mean when and if you get there.

Being a fan of survival horror genre, I still appreciated "Another Kind". But it didn't bring me the thrills and chills that some other similar movies did. I recommend it only to people who generally enjoy this kind of flick.

OK Horror movie, unless you want an "ENDING" (SPOILERS)

[BadlandZ · 4/10 · 2 December 2012]

OK, I have to say, for a horror, it started out bad indie, and got better, and better, and better. They squashed a lot of horror cliché stuff, and made you wonder and get a little scared.... But.. then...

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT - STOP READING NOW IF YOU WANT TO NOT KNOW HOW IT ENDS!!!

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT - STOP READING NOW IF YOU WANT TO NOT KNOW HOW IT ENDS!!!

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT - STOP READING NOW IF YOU WANT TO NOT KNOW HOW IT ENDS!!!

K, now that you are hear... OK, the first part set you up for a good horror movie, and you expected something, or thought "here comes the twist" and then it will be cool. But it didn't.

In the end, it went to an almost David Lynch style "surreal" WTF? level, but not as stylistically, and then ended with, "we are not going to throw this CRAZY bit in at then end that won't wrap up anything, and just tie up all the loose ends with a "well if something this weird happened, why not have people experience crazy stuff" (as the Title sort of gives away).

Really, WEAK story. I was so disappointed by the ending. Just, "really, so it was THAT? OK, well, it explains nonsense, but not in a "cool" way, just a "oh, yea, guess goofy stuff that happened can be explained away with a 'wave of the hand' now in a WEAK way."

Not a bad thriller/horror, really. About average. But the ending, just made every effort in the first half pointless. And then I think how the first 20 minutes were really bad low budget indie style, where the "payoff" makes you forgive the bad acting/editing/style... and... there was no payoff.

Another stupid mystery movie

[re-eino · 2/10 · 29 November 2012]

Just had to watch this because I'm hooked on survival-theme movies. Maybe I had passed it if I had noticed it was one of those movies with a "mystery" element. It's hard enough to do a decent survival movie without any extra themes and true enough, this movie might had been at least decent as a strict survival movie.

Everything starts promising enough. Two friends with their girlfriends leave a city for snow hiking in the forests. Soon enough however the mystery element comes to play and the movie fails instantly. There are several occasions where something irrational and not so subtle stuff happens. One of the guys is just constantly trying to convince the others that's not a big deal. Perhaps some hillbillies are playing pranks etc. and he succeeds every time! This is one of the major flaws in the movie and such a typical fail that it's very annoying. Nobody in their right mind would sleep comfortably and wait some new weird stuff to just happen in dark woods without giving it a second thought. Instead they would get back to their car as fast as possible even if it was only some hillbillies having fun at their expense. But no, they have to wait until parasites begin drilling into their skulls before they're convinced it's probably safer to get back home.

So why did we need the mystery element here? Probably the writer / director realized he didn't have any new ideas for a survival movie and thought he could get off the hook by adding the mystery element. Very few movies in the genre have anything new to add, but I still rather watch another unoriginal realistic movie than a stupid one that's not even funny (unlike The Core which is hilarious). If you find some guilty pleasure from survival movies, then there are much better options you might have not seen yet from The Poseidon Adventure to Open Water and 127 Hours and many more in between.

Not good. Next time before filming, start with a decent story/dialogue. A for effort, D for film.

[Bababooe · 2/10 · 16 November 2017]

The story is boring and the twist thrown in toward the end that comes out of literally out of space. Two couples head out to the country for some cold snow hike. The "Leader" forgets to bring a map. The Leaders girlfriend gets into a fight with him and takes off. What follows is some decent nature scenes and cinematography. And some garbage dialogue and acting. It felt like I was on a bad trip with these people, who happen to use their real names for the characters. They're arguing and apologizing and the viewer is still held in this bad trip. The actors try, but they suck, and their dialogue sucks. The cinematography, editing, and some mood is created. For that I give it 2 stars for the film. So, back to the story. We get some lights, some noise. They lose the tent spikes and have to walk back 10 miles in the snow, then they find the spikes laid out in front of them. The Leader says, it's OK, the locals are probably playing games. Then the "Leader" goes into a coma, and the other two carry this stiff, only to find that they've been walking in a circle back to where they started. Twilight Zone. Then we find that the "Leader" has a duplicate "Alien". Body Snatchers. Then a hallucination/dream sequence to a lake where the only survivor is asked to jump into the lake. I suppose jumping in the lake is like joining the rest to become a Body Snatched. The lake scene is also accompanied by some opera music. OK, back to the snow. Now we find the last survivor running and he miraculously finds himself on a road, where a car speeds by him. He checks his phone and text messages show that aliens have invaded and millions are dead. I think if the world is collapsing, then cell phone/text messaging may also be shut off. The movie ends with his realization, like our realization WTF, and lights of the aliens behind him.

I give this movie 2 stars, not 1, because it was competently produced. However, the story is crap. It's all over the place, the dialogue sucks. Jonathan Blitstein the director also wrote this. My suggestion, please find other stories to produce.

I will also recommend a couple of movies by Bill Rebane: The Alpha Incident (1978) and Invasions from Inner Earth (1974) aka They. These are old, low budget movies, but are twisted, creepy and entertaining.

Creepy and bizarre, sure to divide viewers

[penfold16 · 7/10 · 5 December 2012]

I can see why many people will dislike this movie. It's a bit slow if you're looking for action rather than atmosphere, many details are left unexplained, and what is explained comes way out of left field. But I felt the bizarre and unexplainable events only added to the creepy atmosphere of the cold wilderness. I actually found myself wishing the filmmakers had left even more to the imagination, as the underlying explanation seemed to cheapen the rest of the movie somewhat. I still found myself quite satisfied when the credits rolled, but I think a more ambiguous ending would have been a better fit and given this movie a more lasting feeling of horror.

So while not without its flaws, overall I felt it was a much more interesting movie than its current rating would suggest. It reminded me of YellowBrickRoad, another creepy and bizarre wilderness horror with widely divided opinions.

I Want my 1 hour and 16 minutes of my life back!

[alspoint · 1/10 · 2 May 2018]

Don't waste your time, unless you like a movies with major plot gaps about morons that go on a 27 mile hike in the mtns in the middle of winter, don't know Anything about the wilderness, and have nonsense endings. If you do, then have at it!

Creepy winter hike in the Catskills

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 10 August 2016]

Released in 2013, "Another Kind" details events when four friends take a four-day snowshoeing hike in the Catskills and experience strange occurrences.

This is a micro-budget small film, reportedly only costing $120,000, but it's so competently made it comes across as a bigger movie. It basically takes "The Blair Witch Project" template and makes a better movie. The four actors are all convincing and the dialogue, which might seem to contain a little too much bickering, is fairly realistic (I've been on trips with couples who frequently argue, so I know it happens). The first half hour is pretty humdrum, but then the events and filmmaking magic take you into the story. I almost never get creeped-out during movies, but a few parts of "Another Kind" were seriously creepy. Unlike some mystery movies that keep everything a mystery at the end, "Another Kind" spells it out, which will be a turn-off to some and a good thing to others.

The film is short-and-sweet at 76 minutes and was shot in Catskill Mountains, New York, with the opening filmed in Brooklyn.

GRADE: B

***SPOILER ALERT*** (Don't read further if you haven't seen the movie)

The ending reveals that there's an extraterrestrial attack on earth, so how does this explain the eerie events that the hikers experience. Evidently, the aliens assigned to this particular sector were toying with the hikers, like a cat with a mouse. They were just having some good sport with these easily-conquered low-life humans.

good movie give it a chance!

[ange121786 · 10/10 · 28 November 2012]

well when I first checked out this movie the rating was a 6.1 and I personally always try to watch movies over 5 because normally the ones under suck :)

Anyways I read a little bit of the plot first and then I watched the movie trailer and thought huh! it looks kinda good.

so I got the movie and watched it with my bf last night in bed and this movie did the job :) it had me covering half of my face with my blanket and my bf actually watched all the movie till the end 4 him is really rare because he is really really hard to please :)

so I don't understand why is this movie is getting a low rating really? give it a chance!

Not Terrible, Not Great

[lanzman · 6/10 · 3 August 2015]

Expected this to be yet another tedious "found footage" movie but was pleasantly surprised to find that not the case. Does an admirable job of building mood, altho the characters are basically too stupid to be sympathetic. I mean, you go hiking in the woods without a map or compass? Really? And fall to arguing as soon as you're in the car? Meh. But the overall effectiveness is not greatly diminished by this cliché of genre films. Also affecting the movie is the lack of effective cinematography for a film set in the very scenic Catskill Mountains of New York. However, what is there does work. This was obviously shot on location somewhere it was hilly and wooded, and in the real winter, so that makes up for the otherwise lackluster camera work. The mood is sufficiently weird and creepy to achieve the atmosphere it's going for, and the ending out of left field is pure Twilight Zone stuff. Not a bad hour-and-sixteen minutes.

another kind of letdown

[phenomynouss · 6/10 · 25 March 2018]

This one appeared in my AmazonPrime all of a sudden, and had a generic enough description to not put me off too much in trying it out. Sexy young people lost in the woods have an alien encounter.

The movie felt a lot like a found footage type dealy but surprisingly it wasn't, based on the camera cuts. It treaded carefully, moving at a steady pace without immediately divulging in its alien content and instead played to a more realistic set of fears of getting lost and divided, especially when one of the protagonists reveals he didn't bring a map because he knows the area well enough. Completely unsurprisingly, something happens later on to incapacitate him and thus leave the others completely lost and without a map.

All throughout we get some minor incidents involving lights and malfunctioning electronic equipment that is standard of these sorts of alien encounter movies, and a lot of character interactions which shockingly turn out to be moderately intriguing, and the characters themselves aren't overtly annoying or insufferable or unrealistic.

Ultimately, as calamities befall the group and the movie progresses, we start arriving near the end and we realize we haven't seen any actual alien-y stuff. We finally get one instance of someone being out and about when they should be unconscious, which then somehow turns into a fantasy dream sequence which doesn't quite go anywhere or hint towards anything.

The big reveal at the end was genuinely shocking and awesome, and manages to frame the entire series of events in an even more unsettling light.

But then you realize the film is basically over, and almost nothing has actually happened. We basically had a far superior movie unfolding in the background of this one, and it's only revealed to us over the course of half a minute once it's all over.

I wouldn't mind this sort of movie with that sort of ending, but when so little actually happened in the movie itself, it becomes a major letdown.

Fair...

[devils_neighbor_667 · 6/10 · 22 December 2020]

Acting was a bit poor, but a creepy atmosphere made this film watchable

My Review Of "Another Kind"

[ASouthernHorrorFan · 9/10 · 5 December 2013]

You know when you see certain films and they just seem to stay with you well after you have watched them? "Another Kind" is one of those films. I really didn't know what to expect when I set down to watch-alone, at 1 a.m. but man was I I pleasantly surprised. More so than any other film I have watched that boasted claims such as the description to "Another Kind" declared. In the tradition of "Blair Witch Project" and "The X- Files". A lot of films claim to be comparable to iconic films such as these but very few really deliver. So not the case with this little indie film. Before I get into the depth of how cool, and entertaining the film is I need to give some background info on "Another Kind". The film's directed by Jonathan Blitstein and stars little known actors Jamie Law, Nate Miller, Laura Ramadei and Patrick Woodall. The story follows the four on a winter snowshoeing/camping trip into the wilderness in the Catskills to gear up for a future adventure at Mt. Everest. The adventure turns tragic as a series of mishaps prove to be more than the amateur outbackers can handle. It is a nightmare that only hints at the bigger horror happening around them.

Now for my thoughts on this little gem of a thriller. "Another Kind" has one of those story elements that keeps you on the edge, guessing what really is going on from the moment the characters snowshoes get strapped on. The atmosphere of the film is one of solemn unease. You almost feel the tragedy from the beginning of the film even before anything significant happens. There is just a well conveyed sense of apprehension that seemed to infect me as I watched the film. The actors do an above apt job bringing these characters to life, it is impressive just how comfortable they seem in front of the camera. The performances are genuine and engaging. I felt invested in the characters wellbeing which intensified the chilling nature of the story. In all honesty "Another Kind" reminded me more of "Yellow Brick Road" with a surprise sci-fi twist ending. I bounced back and forth on whether the film was a nightmare flip out of psyches or if the things were really happening that I was seeing on screen. The film gives good thrills.

The special effects are limited, but mostly because there are very few moments in the film that require anything extra, "Another Kind" works more on psychological horror and tension than physical gruesomeness. The sound track and nightmarish situations are what pull the punches with this film, punches are more often creepy and unsettling with almost no lull. The sounds and cinematography used in "Another Kind" is reminiscent of the classic age of horror films from the late 70's and early 80's. Not with gimmicks but with a natural style just seems timeless and recognizable. Oh and the ending on this film remains pretty elusive right up until the very end, and it is a cool ending that I was not expecting. I knew there was a certain sci-fi component because of the title and possible truth behind the events that unfold in the film, I just wasn't expecting the ending that happens in "Another Kind" and it was rewarding. This film actually made me a bit uneasy after it was over, considering I live in the mountains, surrounded by forests that can be pretty frickin' creepy at times. See this movie, it doesn't disappoint.

I thought it was rather well made,altho shorter-lengthened film,merely just roughly like 75-80mins long.But,itd really altogether left me wanting to see more!!...

[InfinateANGELzPORTALz · 6/10 · 17 July 2016]

Id honestly really enjoyed this film,&watched it tonight again on Hulu(&honestly also re-watching next on Hulu a Based on True Events/B.O.T.E. film called"Dark Mountain",also a shorter length film,that Id rate the same as well w/6,though wish a more of a 6.5 were possible to choose,though).

Itd been awhile since last watching the films.But,this film left me wishing that they really had a higher"Movie Budget",than just the roughly $120K,Because then they maybe could've had the chance to keep going past the ending,which even in itself,was also good!Even though it was a low budget movie,it doesn't seem like it is by having that tacky video look&quality to it.

They did a well chosen movie concept to do,along w/having some pretty good Actors,who played their character parts well,too!Its definitely like they ALL made the best of it w/what they had to work with!IMHO,they pull it off w/taking advantage of using what they can,&w/the various elements to let your mind also contribute,w/your imagination working w/the movie,per say.Rather than trying to use up the budget$$ to try"amping it up"in some way.Which Im guessing like other low budgets,whod ended up butchering their flick to where the quality pays the price making literally a"B-Minus Movie",&a badly executed movie!

Which is altogether why I also wish there were also a way I could've rated up abit w/choosing more like 6.5 Stars and wish there were more to the movie in the ending,but it was still a good ending &movie for what it is altogether...Although this is my personal opinion,&know everyones is different :)

Nifty little sci-fi/horror item

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 16 February 2015]

Four friends go hiking into the snowy Catskill mountains for the weekend. Things go terribly awry after the quartet finds themselves stranded in the woods with some kind of mysterious alien force.

Writer/director Jonathan Blitstein relates the compelling story at a steady pace, takes time to develop the characters, makes fine use of the desolate wintry landscape, and offers a strong evocation of the extreme punishing cold as well as a potently unsettling feeling of total isolation and vulnerability. Better still, Blitstein's deceptively simple style and the overall eerily ambiguous atmosphere provide a jolting intimacy that in turn gives this picture an extra unnerving edge. The credible and naturalistic acting by Jamie Law, Nate Miller, Laura Ramadei, and Patrick Woodall keeps this movie humming throughout. Aleksandar Kosutic's no-frills widescreen cinematography and Giulio Carmassi's spare shuddery score are both low-key, yet still effective. A cool little flick.

Enjoyed it more than most

[NeedAnswers · 9/10 · 24 March 2018]

Loved the characters - the film is a bit funny and scary. Great ending.