0612 December 2006

Seeing this in 3D was fun, but didn't really make me like the movie any better. It's essentially a drawing room mystery. A puzzle-box that stops being interesting before it's over.

My second time around on this one -- I'd actually forgotten how great it was! The risks they took with Wallace's character were impressive, and bits of the animation were so perfect they brought tears to my eyes.

A surprisingly traditional exploitation movie plot wrapped up in a remarkable environment. I was really impressed with the variations in make-up and piercings that allowed me to tell the characters apart, which is important in a subtitled film in which names are not spoken often.

Not much to recommend here. Who was the target audience? Has elements in common with Brainstorm, Altered States, and Scanners, but this was so dumb that it seems like it would only appeal to the 12 and under crowd.

Watching this with someone who had never seen it before, I discovered a few things I had forgotten. One, the plot is a little opaque if you're watching for the first time. You have to be patient while the story unfolds. The film is gory, even compared to today's R-rated horror. (I remember HATING the neutered version that used to play on WPIX all the time.) Finally, that ending can really leave you hanging if you're expecting something more. What's interesting is that the gaps in the mystery (who got infected and when?) plus the open ending force you to finish the story yourself. Either right away or late at night while trying to fall asleep...

Weird for the sake of weird? Sure. But eerie, beautiful, unsettling, and genuinely SCARY in the last ten minutes.

My stomach churned constantly through this. Smith epitomizes desperation as he overcomes impossible (and sometimes unbelievable) adversity to keep his family together. Still enjoyable, and if you don't cry there's something wrong with you.

Not as bad I expected. Felt more like a TV series than a movie. The level of gore is definitely out-of-sync with its style of storytelling.

Beautiful and weird, but impenetrable. After dozing off a few times, I gave up trying to understand the plot of this dreamy movie. Lots of talking and allusions to sex, but not a lot of action.