Evil with a motive This may appear to be a typical lost in the woods horror movie, but what sets it apart; it is cleverly executed. And, if i may say something in general about the ending, the audience gets closure for once.
The story centers around Luke, one of 4 English blokes who are planning to hike in Sweden. The conflict within Luke is that he committed an act of cowardice. You see, there were 5 friends once, but Robert was brutally killed during a Liquor store robbery while Luke watched and hid, he did nothing, and nobody else knows.
Spoilers ahead, don't read if you haven't seen the movie.
The other blokes are Hutch, he is the leader, level headed, and makes most of the decisions. Phil is quiet and meek, but turns out be religiously grounded (which comes out later). Dom is physically weak, a wimp, gets injured and slows the group down. Ironically he takes command of the group for a short stint later.
The group soon learns they are lost and take shelter. They wake next morning extremely disoriented. They all experienced night mares. This goes on for another day, and another, all the while they are breaking down. Still lost in the forest. They realize there is an entity toying with them. That's not all, they see evidence of people in the area, there are marked paths and shacks.
There is a reason the entity is toying with the men. Its an ancient Norse creature. It requires disciples to feed it sacrifices, and serve as slaves. These human disciples of the entity are a dozen or so creepy Swedish hill-billies. Turns out they don't age, or age very slowly. But their numbers have been dwindling over the centuries. The entity needs a new recruit to do its bidding. It feeds off of an energy obtained from those who unwittingly enter the woods, are captured and presented ritualistically as a sacrifice.
The creature tested, and toyed with the minds of the hikers in the forest like lab rats. Then the entity proceeds to get rid of the candidates that are not suitable, Hutch is to well grounded, Phil too meek, and religious. Dom actually has a back bone. So they are mind flayed and killed one by one at various times in the story. That leaves Luke, he's perfect, the entity has already determined through the mind melding tests and group observation that Luke would likely serve for a millennium or so just to save his skin. Remember he is a selfish, weak minded coward.
This is the conflict within Luke. He knows why he was chosen. He has a chance to redeem himself. he knows there is no future as a slave to this creature. If he is clever enough, if he paid attention to the clues, he might be able to escape. He's smart enough to know that is the only option...This time he actually fights evil instead of hiding.