Preservation, Do it if you can

Can we preserve ourselves?  We grow into impressive adults.  For the most part, we are nice and loving.  We get married and have kids, and become non-threatening participants in our society.  All very nice.  However, there is always the Deliverance factor.  You go into the woods, get preyed upon, and do anything you need to to survive.  Then...you emerge from the woods.....different. Wrenn Schmidt is a terrific young actress.  Pretty, pale, and diminutive!  There is no way she can play the monster...right?  Today we look at 2014's "Preservation," written and directed by Christopher Denham (you may remember him from "Shutter Island").

Wit (Schmidt), her husband Mike (Aaron Staton) and her brother-in-law Sean (Pablo Schreiber) all go on a hunting/camping trip.  Wit is a fair damsel....a doctor and vegan.  Her husband is married to his job and she might be manifesting an attraction to her brother-in-law...a war vet.  Uh-oh!  Sean begins to show signs he might be a psycho-to-be.  We know things are gonna go south real fast and are anticipating the PTSD ridden and dishonorably discharged Sean may be a ticking time bomb.  Too easy.  There is another presence in these deserted woods.  An evil that is so familiar.  No spoilers here, but once the you know what hits the fan, we are in for a gut wrenching final 32 minutes.  To survive, our fair damsel must become something else.  

To carry on with the plot will entail too many spoilers.  Suffice it to say, Wit becomes something else. Of course, she must survive, but her transformation will prove nightmarish for her tormentors. Escape and preservation aren't part of her strategy.  Kill and hunt become her guiding lights.  No big deal?  Perhaps....but when you see her psycho-prey....it won't be what you imagined.  Pay very close attention to the final three minutes....and then ponder the title "Preservation."

Wrenn Schmidt is terrific in this one.  This film is largely about her transition, which is an extreme one.  She needed to play a few different roles and make us believe they were the same person...and she does this.  Like so many films on this blog, not the feel good movie of the millennium, but one that will stick with you as your kids make you watch Rudolph this Christmas season.  See "Preservation" on Netflix.