The genre has seen its fair share of throwback horror films as of late, especially ones trying to recapture that 80's look and feel that was once long forgotten. The Ranger isn't much different, and unfortunately, is also pretty generic as far as these "slasher throwbacks" go.

The story sees a group of typical 80's punks on the run after one of'em kills a cop in the city. They head to the outskirts and towards some forestry terrain, where one of'em apparently has an old family cabin that they can escape to for the time being. A bit of loud partying and disrespect towards the local forest gets the attention of an unhinged park ranger that sets his sights on the group and it's not long before they're hunted down by the ranger, whom seems to have a stranger connection with one of the female members of the group.

I can see what the filmmakers were aiming for with the movie, but the unlikable characters, the somewhat bland villain and the lack of blood and gore made the movie more dull than it needed to be. It doesn't help that nothing really happens until about half way through the film and even then it's nothing we haven't already seen, especially since the Ranger's choice of weapon is a rifle, so the deaths are fairly bland (though there's a semi-decent axe scene).

It all just feels like a missed opportunity, because I liked the concept of a crazy murderous park ranger, but aside from being a creeper (and acting like a wolf in one weird scene) the character is played a bit too straight. Had he been played differently and used an assortment of weapons, along with there being some nice practical gory deaths then this could've been a decent watch, but as it stands it's simply your standard 80's throwback, minus all the potentially gory deaths. On the plus side, I did like the look of the movie and its use of neon colors during certain scenes, but a movie can only go so far with a nice look.