Yup, it's a low budget indie style movie. No it doesn't have all the bells and whistles you get with blockbusters. But it does a pretty good job with what it has.
I am a hater of movies where the same guy writes, directs, and stars in it. So it was surprising that I kinda liked this one.
The script is ok, the story flows. There were no extraneous plot lines to confuse the issue. The characters have backstories that make you like them, told through the movie, not all dumped at once. The acting is way better than these movies usually have. Not Oscar worthy but a big step above beginners. Well, the goth girl was a bit stilted. There were no continuity issues nor were there plot holes.
There is one sex scene, at the beginning. It was well done and not porn like. It was used to show the frowned upon relationship between a college student and the TA. It also gives us the tie in to the opening sequence and the boy who survived. It was done without shoving it in your face.
The filming was also surprising. No shaky cam, weird angles, or bad transitions. It was shot at night but even the low light scenes were lit enough to see easily. The sound was even throughout and you could easily understand the dialogue.
It opens with a couple in a car arguing about being lost, the guy finally pulls over, but it's in a bad spot. The boy, who's birthday it is, is saved by a passing driver. It moves to the present where we have the Teaching Assistant and student in her room, sex, they are in love. She's a bit bratty (but redeemed slightly later). Meet goth girl roommate. They have a final project to do about urban legends. Brat ropes TA into their group which included nerd boy (cutie). Goth girl's sister comes. All head to Joshua Tree for the Rake legend. Camping scene, Rake makes on screen appearance (you can actually see it, not just an indistinct blur. Car won't start (Brat left radio on and door open, ooops). Little sister is dragged off. The rest are rescued by a crazy local. At his house they're safe due to lots of lighting. Crazy's backstory, bro taken by Rake 30 years ago. Script does a good job of keeping things smart until the random car shows up. Here they get a case of the stupids and go outside, it works out but the stupids are contagious. Nerd goes to charge phone, it overloads the circuits, the lights go off, and things go down hill fast after that. I liked the little twist at the end.
So as you can see, you get a standard horror movie done on a low budget. Overall it was an okay way to pass some time. As a bonus it didn't annoy the poop out of me.