A particularly creative and stubborn professor proposes to conduct an experiment in the secluded forest regions of the mountains.
John Sola (Eric Roberts) embarks on a journey to interview several candidates he thinks would best suit his psychology experiment that is aimed at building his reputation among his peers. He further details the experiment claiming that he is performing a social experiment where he will be studying them while they are camping in the wilderness for 10 days. Each participant is provided with food on a very basic level, but they are made to hunt for their own food during the period which is under custody. In exchange, John offers $1000 each day, provided they finish the experiment. What results is more of an observation regarding social and human behavior that follows a number of films which share similar premises. It’s quite apparent early on when the tragedy begins to meddle that people are getting killed one by one.
The plot thickens as they try to figure out who is behind the murders while trying to remain safe, making it a peculiar mystery along with a whodunnit. Some of these more colorful characters include a failed comedian with poor social skills, an eccentric pagan worshipper, a hippie, and other less vocal members of the group. Kitty Kandrau played by Stacy Stas is one of the characters in this film and she starts my film with some monologue about her dysfunctional family and her battle with the addiction of self harm. What I found out is that a lot of this ‘backstory’ didn’t really matter to the rest of the story.
Here, the conclusions and clues are rather predictable. I know that I was not surprised when things began to unfold. At the same time, I was very disappointed because the story could have been far more intelligent in its pacing. Instead, everything seemed to unfold in a very paint-by-numbers fashion and appeared to be more in tune with the sort of roles Eric Roberts has been doing lately in independent features. Eric is always a joy to witness, and for me, he is a highlight as a viewer. I think the film still has some merit which I would attribute more to light thriller viewers and drama lovers. Beyond the fact that there is a killer at a campground, I did not really get much horror aspect out of it. Stacy was a plus for the film, who had a really charming screen presence and I would love to see her in more challenging roles. It appears to me that the title has been designed with the audience who are waiting for Ryan Reynolds “Buried alive” , but I do not think the story connects with the other one which is going to be out soon.
I have a hunch this DVD will get picked up frequently, purely based on the title. The previous “Project Isolation” has seemingly been renamed to “Project Isolation: Buried Alive”. With the “Buried Alive” part, it might also get mixed up with other titles released in the past few years using the same name. One way or another, people fond of Eric Roberts will enjoy this one and people who like their thrillers in a lighter side will as well. It’s very much enjoyable and is relatively well produced.
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