<b><u>Directed by:</u> Gregory Jacobs.</b>
<b><u>Starring:</u> Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes.</b>
This film I bet will hardly be seen by many people, as it is a strangely limited release and will probably appear onto DVD if they don't… More
<b><u>Directed by:</u> Gregory Jacobs.</b>
<b><u>Starring:</u> Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes.</b>
This film I bet will hardly be seen by many people, as it is a strangely limited release and will probably appear onto DVD if they don't expand the release, its a film that I could have very easily given a 4.5 rating (my highest rating), but it suffers from only one problem.....
A terrible script.....OK, not quite that bad, the plot is simple, familiar but interesting, it does follow formula for the most part and thankfully the film offers some interesting plot points and ideas, but the characters are just terrible. The screenwriters appear like this is there first writing draft straight out of high school, without any deep knowledge of building characters effectively, they introduce them from a wrong angle and they end up to be very dull and poorly underdeveloped....and when they once again, attempt to develop these characters, its too basic and by then, we just don't care.
But away from that one bad point, there are many other brilliant elements. Gregory Jacobs direction, a man who is only known as a Second Unit director for Steven Soderbergh, does his second directional attempt here and by god is it impressive. He keeps in mind what can truly make a psychological thriller/horror effective and that is thick atmosphere, slow, chilling tension and doesn't rely on cheap scares, he uses very few to get the audience's attention (2:32am is all I'll say), but he does it so effectively with slow tension to make it sudden and you never get chance to slow your heartrate down before the chills start again. From there, what came as one hell of a surprise was seeing Clint Mansells name at the beginning of the film as the films composer, the man behind the epic Requiem for a Dream score, the score for this film is amazingly beautiful, haunting and truly chilling, its one of the best horror scores in the past 10 years and it is very effective. And last, but not least, is Emily Blunts performance, although her character is very dull and underdeveloped, she keeps us engrossed with her very solid and controlled performance, she is an amazing actress and is forming into something great.
So there you have it, if you ever see this film at your local cinema, do yourself a favor (if you love effective horror films) and see it, the scripts characters are terrible and dull and the attempt at development is very basic and poorly done, but we are kept engrossed with Gregory Jacobs amazing direction, Clint Mansells outstanding score and Emily Blunts brilliant performance. With slow, chilling tension and a creepy atmosphere, this is one hell of an effective psychological thriller/horror film that could have been the best english speaking one in a decade, if it hadn't been for the poor script.