a truly disturbed and cannibalistic psychopath and john ( gary kent and under the pseudonym michael brody ) who live in a cave and stalk camper who make the unfortunate mistake of backpack in his wilderness . steve ( dean russell ) and his buddy charlie ( john batis ) get into a playful argument with their wife and sharon ( tomi barrett and the late real life wife of gary kent ) ) and teddi ( ann wilkinson ) over survive in the wood camping by themselves . to prove a point and the gal decide to head for the wilderness out of los angeles for a camping trip disturb their partner to the point that they soon follow afterward . fall prey to john and teddi be soon kill a sharon run for her life a the men arrive late to the wilderness due to their truck overheat . afraid and tired and and paranoid and sharon receive some very unusual assistance . john ghost child . that right and john child remain in the wilderness and ghostly apparition which spy on those who exist in the wood and take a special liking to sharon and help guide her to safety and her friend . meanwhile and steve and charlie soon find shelter from a down pour and the darkness of night in the very cave where john live . cooking over a burning fire and the meat simmering be actually from charlie wife and teddi . unknowingly charlie eats from the meat when offer by john who find the outsider inside his dwell place . anyway and soon and worry about their wife and steve and charlie set out to find them a morning break . meanwhile and john go a hunting and with charlie and steve and and sharon in a fight for survival . when steve suffers a compound fracture stumble between two massive rock over a flowing river and he will be handicap only increase such an already nightmare scenario and with sharon follow her ghostly young friend to potential safety . they even and at one point and plead with their father to not kill her . charlie and unfortunately and doesn not have such friend . director donald jones ( . who also write it and go break fund the film ) smartly shoot the film in such a breathtaking and gorgeous location in the sequoia national park and in california and where those gargantuan tree tower to great height and and i basically watch backwoods slasher for this very purpose . for some strange reason and i do not particularly find jones direction of the set very atmospheric . the dread be miss and although there be some rather disturb attack by john use his knife ( . shot in a clever way and jones camera suggest more than what be actually on screen and yet and somehow and still achieve that gasp at what john be do to victim ) . within such a picturesque landscape and to see innocent prey upon by a maniac and that kind of increase the terror . city folk attempt to spend a nice few day in a different place and to smell the clean and fresh air and enjoy the sight of a lovely view and only to find themselves stalk by a creepy predator with a very intimidating knife . provide the back story to why john be the monster he be and jones allow u to witness his memory flashback in discover his wife adultery and react accordingly ( . she be also a ghost in the wilderness look for her child and wish to punish them for be naughty ) kill both her and the lover in bed ( . a refrigerator repairman ) . the child and sad and depress commit suicide and now haunt the wilderness and still interact with their pa or whoever they so choose . i realize such a novelty a ghost child in a backwoods slasher be unique and appreciate by some and but i find the idea rather hokey and too silly to take serious . they do help our heroine escape a few potentially dangerous situation and but it be awfully hard for me to keep from giggle uncontrollably . the music i find hideously 80 and the performance aren not mind blow . i mean i could react to the situation they be in and because it be indeed quite terrify to find yourselves in an unfamiliar and hostile territory be hunt by someone who know the area so well . i think the film be similar in many way to dont go into the wood . alone . and except that the forest have the aforementioned ghost child ( . their voice echo when talk to sharon and their father and or each other ) . gary kent look like a filthy george lucas and with tattered clothes and and humanity lost . a i mention above and the violence isn not as grisly a what be suggest because director jones be able to effectively cut away from a great deal of knife penetration and yet the way he stag the set piece leave you rather unsettle ( . such a teddi murder and the violence mostly silhouette on the surface of a nearby huge stone formation and her plea for john to stop and and once stab several time and attempt to crawl away from her predator only to be finish off while a hang corpse john be skin ) . i have see well and bad of this type of slasher film and it rather mediocre and at best and with some effectively shot scenery . i do not really think it particularly memorable and for the exception of the ghost child .