This almost great thriller of a photographer doing her best to survive against country hicks out for blood alternates between surprisingly good and frustratingly self-destructive with the worst saved for last, unfortunately. Annabelle Dexter-Jones delivers as Harper, an extremely capable woman who’s got a few tricks up her sleeve, but the movie falters when the script occasionally exchanges her smarts for idiocy based on the needs of a scene. Additionally, the in media res opening of Harper in a hospital as she summarizes the broad strokes (with clips!) serves no purpose besides deflating things before we even get going. Why spoil how the thrills end right at the start?

Harper (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), who turned her love of the outdoors into a career in nature photography, lays in a hospital room–closed off from the world in a full-body wrap. A skeptical detective (Michael Weaver) listens as Harper recounts stumbling across people lashing a guy to pieces on her latest wanderings through the backwoods of America and the aftermath when their sights turn to her. How’d she get away? Will the detective buy her crazy story? And is it even over?

Before returning to the flaws I’ll linger on what works, because most of Ravage does. For one, I enjoyed the distinctive music right from the start through to the final frames. It sets the mood quite well and isn’t overbearing throughout, but pops in when effective. The sound design/editing of the whole movie, actually, would be solidly in the “pro” column. Another pro? The gorgeous cinematography provides lots to look at with the lush wilds and scenic sunsets of Virginia. The only tech aspect that negatively jumps out at me are a few questionable edits but those seemed more based out of weak story requirements than anything else.

Annabelle Dexter-Jones demonstrates ingenuity, stamina, conviction, a bit of bloodlust, and a resolute strength as Harper–she isn’t a superhero, though, and struggles plenty. She’s also not exactly talkative so we get to know her through clever plans, harsh actions, and necessary choices. Now, the fact that she’s so smart and capable most of the time doesn’t mean any human error is a plothole, but the kind of foolish blunders the script has her make on occasion don’t jive with the character as presented for much of the film and scream plot contrivance. The rest of the cast do fine as various ‘Murica lovin’ killer hicks, with Bruce Dern faring best as a nearby neighbor and Robert Longstreet’s Ravener getting a touch hammy as the main baddie.

Putting most of the minor quibbles aside, the main things standing in the way of Ravage being great are the opening scene and the ending. Y’know, even the opening lameness of starting at the end before filling in the blanks wouldn’t have been such a crippling blow–it’s the whole last 10/15 minutes. I won’t specifically spoil anything (though you know right from the start she escapes and her boyfriend dies), but it feels a bit like maybe production ran out of funds and had to zip through the finale with jumbled edits, quick cuts, and a hospital post-script. While still being rather vague, I got the impression the filmmakers couldn’t settle on how to end so they narratively finagled a couple–neither is exceptionally satisfying.

Overall, if you’re into survivalist thriller/horror & lady vengeance-type stuff I’d imagine you’ll find more than enough to like–even with the useless opening and underwhelming wrapup. If it weren’t for the lame hospital scenes, script-based character idiocy, and a rushed/choppily edited denouement I think this would’ve been at least an 8 out of 10.

6 out of 10 No-Nonsense Photographers