Bertino made a giant splash in the horror scene a decade ago with THE STRANGERS, a movie that was able to take a well-worn plot device and do something memorable and terrifying with it. To me, so much of what made that film successful was Bertino's direction. Let's face it, we've all seen a thousand home invasion horror films. We've all seen villains in plastic Halloween masks. The suspense and pure terror that Bertino was able to create in that movie, though, through some wonderful camera shots and scenes so tense you truly sat at the edge of your seat, made the movie stand out so well from the pack. I've been waiting for him to bring that fine-tuned edge of horror back to hungry fans.
I had read some good reviews of this movie and was honestly hoping for the best. I didn't expect another instant classic like THE STRANGERS. I was just looking for good indie horror. Unfortunately, I was a little bit let down. There is nothing that really stands out about this movie. Essentially, you could make the argument that it's THE STRANGERS all over again. Sure, the kids have been replaced with a mysterious monster and the house has been replaced with a car. In the end, most horror films boil down to a few basic plots with a new coat of paint and this is really just the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD/ ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 blueprint in a car, with a monster. It's still our main characters trapped in a claustrophobic environment while the invading threat tries to get in. I would argue that it borrow a great deal from CUJO, as well. Much like THE STRANGERS, at the heart of it is another dysfunctional family pairing. In this one, a young girl and her alcoholic, abusive mother.
The two young women playing our starring roles are probably the only good thing about this movie, though both of them started to work on my nerves by the end of the movie. I don't expect Oscar worthy acting in my indie horror, so I'm usually pleasantly surprised when I find someone playing a fully fleshed out character with some style and that's exactly what we get from both. The daughter is very typical of a young woman in an abusive relationship and the mother is like too many people I've known in my life, thrust into parenthood at too young an age and not ready to grow up enough to face the responsibility that comes with it. Both, though, push that edge of annoying. They are not people you would want to spend time with in real life, but you could argue that's a mark of a good performance.
Unfortunately, the relationship plays out in a series of never- ending flashbacks that keep killing any tension that the movie is trying to make. I applaud the script writer for trying to show this relationship in a unique manner, rather than having our characters explain everything to us in bad dialog, or lengthy conversations meant to interject some history. In the end, though, there are just too many flashbacks and they started to feel like a desperate bid to fill run time in the movie.
I liked the decision to keep our monster mostly in shadows. This was probably an effect of the budget, but a choice I'm fine with having come from a love of classic horror. Too many indie horror films make the mistake of showing us too much bad creature makeup. For the first hour of this movie, it does a pretty decent job of building up tension and fear and created a mood of claustrophobic terror. It's hard to build 90 minutes in a car, though, with a monster that's big enough to simply knock out a window, so eventually we leave the car and that's when things start to spin into slightly ridiculous mode and any good will the movie was building with me was killed by a finale with too many forced events thrown into it and a push to take the message of the movie far too seriously.
I had read some good reviews of this movie and was honestly hoping for the best. I didn't expect another instant classic like THE STRANGERS. I was just looking for good indie horror. Unfortunately, I was a little bit let down. There is nothing that really stands out about this movie. Essentially, you could make the argument that it's THE STRANGERS all over again. Sure, the kids have been replaced with a mysterious monster and the house has been replaced with a car. In the end, most horror films boil down to a few basic plots with a new coat of paint and this is really just the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD/ ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 blueprint in a car, with a monster. It's still our main characters trapped in a claustrophobic environment while the invading threat tries to get in. I would argue that it borrow a great deal from CUJO, as well. Much like THE STRANGERS, at the heart of it is another dysfunctional family pairing. In this one, a young girl and her alcoholic, abusive mother.
The two young women playing our starring roles are probably the only good thing about this movie, though both of them started to work on my nerves by the end of the movie. I don't expect Oscar worthy acting in my indie horror, so I'm usually pleasantly surprised when I find someone playing a fully fleshed out character with some style and that's exactly what we get from both. The daughter is very typical of a young woman in an abusive relationship and the mother is like too many people I've known in my life, thrust into parenthood at too young an age and not ready to grow up enough to face the responsibility that comes with it. Both, though, push that edge of annoying. They are not people you would want to spend time with in real life, but you could argue that's a mark of a good performance.
Unfortunately, the relationship plays out in a series of never- ending flashbacks that keep killing any tension that the movie is trying to make. I applaud the script writer for trying to show this relationship in a unique manner, rather than having our characters explain everything to us in bad dialog, or lengthy conversations meant to interject some history. In the end, though, there are just too many flashbacks and they started to feel like a desperate bid to fill run time in the movie.
I liked the decision to keep our monster mostly in shadows. This was probably an effect of the budget, but a choice I'm fine with having come from a love of classic horror. Too many indie horror films make the mistake of showing us too much bad creature makeup. For the first hour of this movie, it does a pretty decent job of building up tension and fear and created a mood of claustrophobic terror. It's hard to build 90 minutes in a car, though, with a monster that's big enough to simply knock out a window, so eventually we leave the car and that's when things start to spin into slightly ridiculous mode and any good will the movie was building with me was killed by a finale with too many forced events thrown into it and a push to take the message of the movie far too seriously.