A young team of archeology students exploring a cave in an isolated area of New Zealand, find an old backpack from an expedition of mineral explorers, who disappeared years before.The bag holds notebooks referencing the explorers' camp further upriver and a large, 80's video camera. At a small town nearby, suspicious locals warn them not to travel upriver for fear of the existence of a Taniwha, a legendary, supernatural monster. The poor quality video footage fuels the teams' curiosity and they head up river with terrifying consequences. Taniwha follows in the tradition of budget horror films like 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Paranormal Activity.