A group of friends set off into the Scottish Highlands in search of the cabin that Rhona’s (Lauren Lyle, Outlander) father has left for her. Yet the further they get from civilization, the worse things get. That’s because a series of bad decisions puts the group up against Carla (Nicolette McKeown), a veteran whose skills at survival — and outright murder — may be too much for even several of them to handle.

Directed by Ryan Hendrick, who co-wrote the script with Meliá Grasska, this film has a shocking moment where a fight between two of the men — Scott (James Watterson) and Andy (Eoin Sweeney) — get in a fistfight. Scott knocks Andy down with a punch and a branch goes directly through his leg, severing an artery. As they are far from help with no way of getting a phone signal, Carla does what her training taught her. She kills the man to put him out of his misery because the only other way is a slow and agonizing death. 

That said — you can imagine how the rest of the group feels at seeing one of their friends get his throat slashed ad him spraying blood.

Yet by the end of the film, you realize that this isn’t necessarily a mercy killing, Not when she sneaks up behind Heather (Layla Kirk) and lynches her, leaving her body for the rest to find.

Once they find their way to the cabin — and a cave nearby — Rhona and Scott decide to set a trap for Carla. Yet she’s trained and they’re just normal civilians. Yet by this point, Rhona seems like she’s gone into full survivor mode and that freaks out Scott’s male instincts.

Mercy Falls is a movie that has incredibly strong female characters and gorgeous scenery, places that we haven’t seen before in America, and builds a real sense of tension by the end of the film. There are real stakes here between the two women at the heart of the story.

I think it’s hilarious when in slasher movies — well, this isn’t fully a slasher but has elements — when the final people decide to pause and make sweet love when death is so close. Then again, people do have sex directly after funerals a lot, so maybe it’s a way of staring death in the face and proclaiming that you’re alive. I do love that the camera slides from a fireside lovemaking moment to Carla outside, cutting an apple with a knife and smiling.

The gore in this is more than effective. It feels like something you don’t want to dwell in, moments of hearts pumping blood as people die. The violence in this has consequences and it’s not just a simple stalk and slash.

The beauty of Tubi is that it opens up new worlds for us as viewers. We now reside in a world that allows us to instantly bring the vision of a Scottish indie filmmaker into our living room and watch how they would tell this story, see the world that they see every day and be entertained by it. That’s something to celebrate.

You can watch this on Tubi.