The Lost Vlog of Ruby Real (2020)

There’s a creepy tree in town and Ruby Real is going into the woods to debunk it. She brings her influencer friends Callie and Steven to help her. Ooo how will their followers stand it?

There’s a legend about the tree game which says if you walk around a specific tree, you’ll end up in a different dimension.  Other influencers have done it, gotten disoriented and have no memory of what happened. A hiker recently tried it and no one has seen them since.

Our intrepid influencers go off the path to find the tree, walk around it, and nothing happens. They triumphantly claim it debunked until they try to get back to their car and end up back at the tree. They keep trying with the same result.  Then they decide they won’t leave the trail since it goes to the parking lot. But the next thing you know, they’re walking in the woods or at the river.  Stop doing that.

At one point, they see someone in the woods and argue whether to ask for help or not. Then one says, “Let’s go. If he wanted to help us, he would have come and talked to us.” Yes, because it’s entirely normal for strangers to randomly walk up to you in the woods and ask if you need help. 

The thing that drove me nuts was they decide to try to reverse what happened by walking around the tree. So I expected them to walk the opposite direction, since that’s the reverse of what they did before. Yet the first two go around the tree in the same direction. Also each one waits until the other one has walked around the tree and walked off camera before they walk up and go around it. It’s a plot device as there is no reason they cant follow each other around the tree. 

Ruby keeps asking why there are only two of them left, and what was done differently. It’s obvious to the viewer and oh my god woman, you’re filming everything. Watch the video you shot. She ends up alone and it takes her days to figure out she should try walking the opposite way around.  

While the characters aren’t the worst people in the world, influencers aren’t the most sympathetic or likable characters. 

Dialogue from some maroons in the woods:

Steven: What do you think that noise is?

Callie: I don’t know. Maybe something to do with the magnetic field? I’m no science expert.

Ruby says this normal tree looks super creepy

Ruby, Steve and Callie showing us why they’re influencers

Why would they choose to sleep on rocks?