First - I always check the spoilers box, just so I don't have to be too careful about what I write in my review.
The movie starts out with a real un-serious feeling to it. The pubescent teen sex jokes, things like that. The serial killer has just 'come out of hiding' by sending a rather taunting letter to the police. Of course they don't know who he is, but now they know that he IS a serial killer of boys (mostly).
The main 'kid' character, Davey, is sure that through a window of his neighbor's house, he saw the latest kid who disappeared and whose picture is on the milk carton. He and his friends - led by him of course - go about spying on the neighbor in various ways. After a rather drawn out middle part of the movie, they finally find the proof that the neighbor is the killer. That's when things start to really move.
While the police have seen the evidence of who the killer is, they haven't caught him yet - and he turns up in Davey's house late at night, taking him and his buddy Caleb to an island where he's going to play "Manhunt" with them - for real.
Davey promises Caleb 'I got you into this and I'll get you out of it' but unfortunately Caleb gets brutally murdered by the serial killer, who for reasons I don't quite understand, elects to let Davey live so that he can worry every day if this will be the day the killer gets him.
In the last part of the movie we see only a glimpse of Davey's grief over the death of his friend Caleb. I think it would have been a lot clearer if they'd have shown a few shots of Caleb's funeral. We know Caleb died, we see Davey crying, but to see even a brief view of some part of the funeral would have cemented the connection and made the grief all the more real.
I also don't understand why, with the serial killer still on the loose - after having killed Caleb and releasing Davey - why Davey is out riding his bike again delivering newspapers. If that was my son, leaving him out of my sight with the killer still at large is the LAST thing I'd ever do.
When the killer comes down from Davey's attic and abducts him and Caleb, apparently chloroforming them to knock them out, that is when this movie gets one heck of a serious murder movie aspect to it, especially the killing of Caleb. I couldn't watch. The part where Davey and Caleb get abducted is another thing I don't understand. They were sleeping in Davey's second floor bedroom - how did the killer get both of them down the stairs and out to his car without waking Davey's family? And Caleb was a BIG boy, like well over 200 pounds. I can't imagine how the killer even managed to move him, all that dead weight.
But - this is a movie and there has to be some suspension of disbelief, so okay. This is a pretty good movie - I doubt I'll watch it again but I think it was worth my time to see it once.
The movie starts out with a real un-serious feeling to it. The pubescent teen sex jokes, things like that. The serial killer has just 'come out of hiding' by sending a rather taunting letter to the police. Of course they don't know who he is, but now they know that he IS a serial killer of boys (mostly).
The main 'kid' character, Davey, is sure that through a window of his neighbor's house, he saw the latest kid who disappeared and whose picture is on the milk carton. He and his friends - led by him of course - go about spying on the neighbor in various ways. After a rather drawn out middle part of the movie, they finally find the proof that the neighbor is the killer. That's when things start to really move.
While the police have seen the evidence of who the killer is, they haven't caught him yet - and he turns up in Davey's house late at night, taking him and his buddy Caleb to an island where he's going to play "Manhunt" with them - for real.
Davey promises Caleb 'I got you into this and I'll get you out of it' but unfortunately Caleb gets brutally murdered by the serial killer, who for reasons I don't quite understand, elects to let Davey live so that he can worry every day if this will be the day the killer gets him.
In the last part of the movie we see only a glimpse of Davey's grief over the death of his friend Caleb. I think it would have been a lot clearer if they'd have shown a few shots of Caleb's funeral. We know Caleb died, we see Davey crying, but to see even a brief view of some part of the funeral would have cemented the connection and made the grief all the more real.
I also don't understand why, with the serial killer still on the loose - after having killed Caleb and releasing Davey - why Davey is out riding his bike again delivering newspapers. If that was my son, leaving him out of my sight with the killer still at large is the LAST thing I'd ever do.
When the killer comes down from Davey's attic and abducts him and Caleb, apparently chloroforming them to knock them out, that is when this movie gets one heck of a serious murder movie aspect to it, especially the killing of Caleb. I couldn't watch. The part where Davey and Caleb get abducted is another thing I don't understand. They were sleeping in Davey's second floor bedroom - how did the killer get both of them down the stairs and out to his car without waking Davey's family? And Caleb was a BIG boy, like well over 200 pounds. I can't imagine how the killer even managed to move him, all that dead weight.
But - this is a movie and there has to be some suspension of disbelief, so okay. This is a pretty good movie - I doubt I'll watch it again but I think it was worth my time to see it once.