“Solitude” takes a reality TV–style survival competition and twists it into a harrowing folk horror about hunger, madness, and the Wendigo.
No time to read? Click the button below to listen to this post.
The wilderness has always been an effective stage for horror—beautiful, daunting, and deadly. Jeremy W. Brown’s Solitude, co-directed with legendary horror production designer Mick Strawn, takes full advantage of this natural stage.
A gritty, low-budget indie feature with surprising polish, Solitude uses Wendigo folklore to breathe fresh life into the survival horror subgenre, crafting a story that is as much about hunger and isolation as it is about monsters in the woods.
The premise feels ripped from reality television. Kara (Sam Wren Vincent), a well-known social media survivalist, joins nine other competitors in a contest heavily inspired by The History Channel’s Alone.
Dropped into a remote wilderness, she only has to endure until the crew comes back to collect her. Easier said than done.
At first, Kara does what any hardened contestant would: forages, sets traps, films herself. But the woods don’t play fair. Bait disappears from snares without being tripped. Fresh kills look like they’ve been rotting for months. Menacing sounds echo through the trees.
Even worse, Kara stumbles upon an old journal from 1811, chronicling the brutal starvation of a family in the very same woods. Black-and-white flashbacks bring these accounts to life, creating eerie parallels to Kara’s own unraveling.
The film is steeped in Wendigo mythology, an underused vein of horror that Solitude mines for both atmosphere and ambiguity.
Is Kara truly being stalked by a vengeful spirit, or is her mind collapsing under the weight of hunger, fear, and despair?
The filmmakers wisely keep the monster mostly hidden, letting the dread simmer. When it finally reveals itself, the impact is visceral, all the more chilling because of what we—and Kara—have already endured.
Sam Wren Vincent’s performance is the heartbeat of the film. As Kara, she balances the grit of a seasoned survivalist with the vulnerability of someone reaching her breaking point.
We watch her deteriorate both physically and mentally, and it’s uncomfortably real. She screams into the void, retches at what little food she finds, and still clings to life with desperate tenacity. She’s both a final girl and a tragic figure, and Vincent never wavers. Her performance is both harrowing and hypnotic.
Her work is supported by cameos from Alone contestants Larry Roberts and Nicole Apelian, who also consulted on the script and production to ensure survivalist authenticity. The result is a film that feels both cinematic and grounded.
Despite its indie budget, Solitude feels big.
That’s thanks in part to the pedigree behind the camera. Brown previously directed the popular fan film Friday the 13th: Vengeance, while Strawn’s production design shaped classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, and Candyman.
The atmosphere they create here is thick with dread, both immersive and unnerving.
The score—by none other than Harry Manfredini of Friday the 13th fame—elevates everything. It’s one of the film’s strongest assets: immersive, unsettling, and deeply effective in amplifying both the isolation and the terror.
The pacing sags a little in the middle act, but Solitude earns its slow burn. Fans of cerebral folk horror will find a lot to savor. When the Wendigo myth takes root, it’s not simply a monster in the woods but a generational curse of hunger and desperation.
That makes Solitude more than a creature feature; it’s a chilling meditation on the things that eat us alive when we’re truly alone.
Overall Rating (Out of 5 Butterflies): 3.5
Follow Us!