I don’t know where to begin.
Visually, this film delivers on a certain level. Opening night at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood (alas, not on the big screen but one of their small six) the darkened room was filled with laughter during the supposedly more intense moments.
The Pang Brothers exploded onto the scene with their incredibly creepy film entitled The Eye (which is being remade by, sigh, Tom Cruise and Lionsgate) and followed it by crafting the sort of scary The Eye 2.
The story opens with a somewhat gripping opening with a woman and a little boy being haunted by a spirit. This is a typical coming from the Pangs as they do love their ghost stories across the ocean. What follows is a by the numbers introduction of the family. Receiving top billing in this film is up and comer, Kristen Stewart (Panic Room, Catch that Kid) who is very easy on the eyes and exudes a brilliant potential given the right material. Then we see Dylan followed by Penelope who seems to have lost her way after starring in the craptacular adaptation of The Relic. And the camera pans to the little boy. Sigh again.
Plagued by back story of Kristen’s troubled past and their subsequent move from the city to a secluded farmhouse where Dylan has a dream of growing, sigh, sunflowers. John Corbett soon shows up as a wayward drifter looking for work and I thought he looked a bit too much like the underrated Richard Tyson from Two Moon Junction.
Before we can say plot hole, things begin to go bump in the night as Kristen sees things that she can’t explain and things go back to normal. And of course we have her little brother who doesn’t speak because of their lame back story of a drunken driving accident that involved her and him. Insert your own sigh here.
With dialogue spewing from Penelope’s mouth like “I hope everything’s okay” as she and Dylan pull up to their house with squad car lights flashing in the night to Dylan being attacked by crows, one begins to wonder what went wrong?!?!
The writing is piss poor. We can thank Mr. Farmer who devised the brilliant story of Jason getting an upgrade in space in the disaster known as Jason X and his partner in crime, Mark Wheaton who at one point was supposedly writing a draft of a new Friday the 13th for Platinum Dunes. Which as of this review, he is no longer attached. Thank heavens!
The Pangs are incredible filmmakers and their partnering with Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures left me shaking in my boots when first announced. Then came the production delays and chronic title changes followed by re-shoots and finally the dreaded PG-13 kiss of death and February dump.
Skip this film. Instead go rent The Eye 1,2 and comedic spin The Eye 10 which pokes fun at their own films and is directed by The Pangs. Bangkok Haunted is also worth a watch too.
I love this genre and will continue shelling out several bones each weekend but I am getting frustrated with the lack of concern these films are getting from their producers. Just look at Turistas which was written by the editor of Wrong Turn and directed by John Stockwell (Cougar from Top Gun who has a water obsession.)
A plea to the Pang Brothers, please re-visit your roots and come back swinging. We’re still waiting for your next great horror film.
Don’t answer this messenger.
– Jack Reher
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
