Independent filmmaker Kyle Couch has written and directed an efficient suspense thriller in The Tent, with a somewhat obligatory twist in its final minutes. An old fellow named David (Tim Kaiser) is living in the woods, catching small animals in traps and otherwise staying in his tent while offscreen creatures, according to him, are roaming around malevolently. An event called The Crisis has turned the world into an apocalyptic nightmare, and David is relying on survivalist know-how to stay alive. At the same time, he's developed a tough hide against incursions by anyone else looking for safety. Stumbling around in the forest one night, David steps on one of his own clawed traps and is wounded. Howling in pain, he draws the attention of a stranger, Mary (Lulu Dahl), whom he tries to chase away but eventually enters into a bickering alliance with her. Meanwhile, something creepy is roaming outside the tent, and the soundtrack is full of clicks and warbles and all sorts of strange sounds that make the night come alive in threatening ways. Couch has a big tool kit full of obvious but still viable cliches, such as bumpy, point-of-view shots from the unseen threat's perspective, just to let us know there's something there worth worrying about. Couch knows how to generate a sense of emotional urgency that rolls right over jagged production values, rough editing, and narrative seams, and he also knows how to draw out involuntary visceral reactions from an audience. He keeps his rickety train speeding along the track without derailing, and he's helped enormously by Kaiser and Dahl, who throw themselves body and soul into some pretty heightened drama. Strongly recommended. (T. Keogh)