Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'M.I.A. A Greater Evil'

Written by Scott Edwards

It can be easy to get caught up in old stories of riches and people still follow them today. With so many old treasures still not being found, along with gold deposits that are yet to be revealed, it is easy to believe that you might be the lucky person that will find it first. Listening to the stories, you can take away something different from it than others have and make your own assumptions as to where the riches lie. But you must remember that you are not the only person looking for the treasure and the places that you visit may have a different story to tell than you have heard before.

Traveling to the former war ridden land of Vietnam, Professor Steve, his student and lover Rachel, Anita and Jez are ready to find an old mine that was lost to time. With stories being told to the locals about a French Mine that was riddled with gold, the group is looking to make it rich, but it will not be easy to come by. Traveling down a river and hitting some rapids, the group is tossed from their boat, but when setting up camp they find that some of the stories may be true. Gold panning in the shallows, Steve finds a small stash of gold and is ready to make it much more in the following days.

Sitting by the fire and telling stories about what happened in the area back during the Vietnam War, Anita and Rachel have ties to it from their relatives. Hearing something in the woods, Jez is quick to pull out his newly purchased gun and points it into the darkness only to find a local that has a warning for them. The Guide is happy to show the group out of the forest as soon as possible but seeing that the group is not willing to turn around he warns them that the river will not allow them to keep the gold and that there is a Greater Evil in the forest that is coming after them. As The Guide moves closer to the group, Jez has a knee jerk reaction and accidentally shoots the old man. 

Coming up with a plan of his own, Steve has the group move the body to an easily accessible spot by the river and they will make their way to the closest town in the morning. As morning comes however, the group discovers that their boats are missing, along with the body of The Guide. Returning to the camp to find it torn to shreds, the group believes that they are being hunted by a drug cartel that could be hiding out in the forest, but it turns out to be something much more sinister than that. Waking up in the middle of the night to someone stalking the camp, Anita comes face to face with a solider from the Vietnam War who is ready to be rescued, but after explaining that he has been left behind, Anita continues to see that there are many more lost souls in the forest. Needing to try and find a way out of the forest is first and foremost for the group who does not believe their colleague, but they quickly find out that the forest will be feeding on their darkest fears.

I must admit that when reading the description of this movie I thought that there would be a full-blown Vietnam Battle being shown and while you get a little bit of gunfire, so much was left to the imagination. I liked how the storyline focused on the men left behind after the war came to an end and how the troops escaped one hell to find themselves in another. The driving force for each character was forced to change as the story played on, with the need for gold turning into the need for survival when they ran out of rations, which was nice and made the characters a little more likeable. With a cover up being exposed, many lost souls from a war, a Guide who no one listens to, a little bit of gun fire and a forest full of fears coming to life, this is a pretty good little ghost story that deals with moving on, along with what might actually happen when people discover there is no escape. Stay Scared.

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