20131010: Horror Review--11/11/11

11/11/11

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, released 2011, rated R, 87 minutes, horror, drama.
2. IMDB: 2.5/10.0 from 791 users;
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 23% liked it among 263 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 213,070 users.
5. Directed by: Keith Allan
6. Starring: Jon Briddell as (Prof.) Jack Vales, Erin Coker as Melissa Vales, Hayden Byerly as Nathan Vales, Tracy Pulliam as Janice Karpinsky, Madonna Mcgee as Annie, David Bertolami as Chris Demms, Rebecca Sigl as Sarah Blight, Aurelia Scheppers as Denise, Lauren Dobbins Webb as Rhonda.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Jack, Melissa, and Nathan move to a new town and a new house in University housing.


2. At least three of the neighbors knew that Nathan's birthday was coming right up.  There's a bad sign if there ever was one!  The active hornets' nest was another, especially since the editor keeps cutting to it.  The rotten meat in Jack's office desk was a third; the claw marks on the family room wall should probably count as well.  The fellow who came by to fix the claw marks takes one look, runs away, gets hit by a car.  A door slams shut, followed by windows slamming shut and glass breaking.  Good start.


3. Melissa has an unexpected bleeding event which leads her to find out she's pregnant.  Her new doctor prescribes complete bed rest coupled with getting a nanny for Nathan and a nurse for Melissa.  The neighbor across the street falls, is impaled, and dies.  All sorts of clues come from neighbors and Jack's co-workers at the University.


4. The nurse is rather sinister, but the nanny Rhonda seems light and pleasant.  Denise beats the living crap out of her, muscles in on the job, including stealing Rhonda's mobile phone.  She majors in comparative religions and works part time at a butcher shop.  Great stuff.


5. This goes on and on: 'significant event' after significant event, right up to the end.  Unfortunately, the film brings none of this significance to fruition.


3. Conclusions
1. The ratio of netflix viewers versus RT audience is over 800.  Not too many people were willing to pay theater prices for this one.
2. One line summary: A bad film about numerology and satan worship.
3. One star of five; two blackholes for acting and screenwriting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 For daylight portions, the fundamentals were good. The filming during the first ritual sacrifice was hideously bad.  The night sequences were spotty.


2. Sound: 7/10 Probably the best part of the film.


3. Acting: 0/10 There were so many bad performances.  Hayden Byerly was terrible.  Aurelia Scheppers was a disaster.  None of the adult actors were worth much either.  Jon Briddell, as the clueless father, was the worst of them all.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Lots of bad execution. Very little of the action makes direct sense. Motivation?  Forget that.  A handcuffed, willful, incredibly stupid teenager escapes from the inside of a locked police car from the back seat, just seconds before the car explodes?  I don't think so.  Jack could have saved his wife by lifting the cord.  Jack murdering people to save the son who killed his wife?  What goes here?  Not logic.  The ending did not present resolution or clarification; rather, the ending seemed to deny so much of the rest of the film. The SFX were just sad.