An apocalyptic event known as The Crisis has devastated David’s world leaving him to rely on survival tactics learned from childhood.
In the aftermath of a strange apocalyptic event knows only as ‘the crisis’, an older man named David (Tim Kaiser) escapes to the wilderness, living in a tent and relying on his survival skills to try and stay alive. He is soon joined by a young woman named Mary (Lulu Dahl), whom he unwillingly allows into his camp, but not his tent, even as creatures in the dark, who may or may not be responsible for the event linger close.
Written and directed by Kyle Couch, The Tent is an unusual genre film that plops us into the story well after it began for David. This leaves us somewhat disoriented in the early moments as we follow him into the trees after an emergency broadcast signal and blaring sirens has him looking to the skies. Time passes and he’s managed to keep himself sheltered from the worst of it by sticking to routines he learned when he was a younger man. Thing is, he’s not a trusting fellow, and when he’s forced to contend with Mary, who thinks they have a better chance together than apart, he resists.
Filmed almost entirely in and around a dingy grey tent, The Tent is not what it seems to advertise, the setup quickly pushed to the side in favor of a conversationally-driven exchange between two people who have dealt with the impacts of the crisis very differently and now find themselves at odds with how to work together. This unfolds while David experiences flashbacks from when it began and we are meant to discover how much David has changed in the shadow of beings who have decimated all he knows. But is Mary more of a threat?
The idea behind this is clever, and the setting effective, shot mostly at night while it appears creatures edge ever nearer. This has plenty of potential, especially as David’s sanity seems ever more in question. Couch works hard to push all the buttons in trying to convince us things are both what and not what they seem, and given the premise, there’s a lot that keeps us wondering. However, there is an equal push in other directions that keeps this well shy of the thump in the chest it takes swings at.
Couch has a good script but the delivery is far too inconsistent, even as it’s peppered with some clever inserts and an effective use of sound, often stripping this of the power it feels just ready to unpack. That keeps this at a frustrating distance because both David and Mary are interesting characters caught in a genuinely compelling twist. And that twist isn’t without some potency, and more so, earnest in its effort to symbolize its message.
Unfortunately, it sort of feels like a cheat, and I hate to say that as what does come to be the truth in The Tent is actually as deeply resonant of something personal to me as it is to the director. The setup is fine, and the dilemma authentic, but the reveal comes too late and takes time away from a side of the story I would have much rather have become more invested in. That said, I really want to like Couch’s film. He has something important to say and is most assuredly connected to it. But there is a hollowness to the end that left me on the sidelines.