I really enjoyed Rupert Bryan’s The Hike mainly because, despite being written and directed by men, it acts in a fashion that doesn’t feels the same as movies of this type typically do, such as I Spit On Your Grave (2010) and The Woman (2011), when wronged women raise Hell on the men that wronged them.

Though The Hike also revolves around women, five, in fact, who decide to go on a camping trip to get away from the stresses of their regular lives.

It goes without saying that nothing goes as planned for the ladies.

What makes this movie particularly interesting is that it takes what’s a trope in male-lead vengeance thrillers – a wronged man seeks vengeance on the people that wronged him though unbeknownst to them he possesses a particularly set of skills and is lethal when he puts his mind to it – and turns it on it’s head, with one of the women being extraordinarily competent compared to her peers being taken out early on in the movie, leaving the less formidable ladies to rise or fall based on their own abilities.

The movie doesn’t fixate on gore or nudity – both are present, though the movie doesn’t force the viewer to go through the same treatment as the victims.

It has some intense moments (particularly the opening) though the violence is, compared to movies of it’s type, almost subdued.

And the ending is pretty clever, though depending upon how you look at it maybe a bit cynical.

And that’s okay if the movie is smart enough that you don’t really notice it.