Originally released "cold" in its theatrical release (meaning it didn't have any press screenings due to Artisan Entertainment believing it wasn't any good), the title has now been released on home video with the add-on title, "The Killer Cut" and a new R-rating (up from the original PG-13). A supernatural thriller wannabe along the lines of "The Sixth Sense," "The Others" and "Jacob's Ladder," the film does have the inherent potential to be decent.
After all, there's the built-in surprise ending and all of the obligatory hints leading up to it along the way that we're supposed to pick up or recall in 20/20 post-movie hindsight. Yet, the way in which writer/director Steve Carpenter (writer of "Blue Streak," director and co-writer of "The Kindred") has executed the otherwise passable scenario results in a picture that's too predictable, not scary or unnerving enough, and gets unwieldy when it should be tightening its cinematic noose around the viewer's neck.
Among the film's many problems, a rather large one is that the basic story isn't terribly intriguing, especially when compared to a kid seeing dead people or a WWII era single mother dealing with a haunted manor. Here, we have a teen whose boyfriend is killed in a car crash that then causes her to have visions of both him and some nameless thugs - one sporting the requisite expressionless mask - who are after her for some reason.
No one else sees what she does - natch - thus causing her and presumably us to think that maybe she's gone a bit loony. Having seen such films before, however, we obviously know the latter isn't true and thus put on our cinematic Sherlock Holmes caps and try to figure out what's really occurring.
Unfortunately for Carpenter and his picture, it's too easy to figure out, a fact that's due as much in part to previous such films training us a bit too well in deductive thinking, as it is to the rather mediocre way in which the puzzle has been arranged. It doesn't help that the "cover" material - designed to mislead, distract and/or scare us - isn't particularly effective or that the performers don't sell their characters or the story enough for us to care about either.
In "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others," the characters and their predicament instantly had me hooked. I felt their pain, uneasiness and terror, and wanted them to be okay. Sadly, that's not the case here as the characters feel like straight to video creations and the story's missing that extra special oomph or touch to make it work, let along match the quality of what preceded it.
As the lead character, newcomer Melissa Sagemiller simply doesn't have what it takes to make us care or worry about Cassie any more than the various fodder-based characters who appear in most any mad slasher film (that this one resembles in its cat and mouse moments).
While some of the behavior of the supporting characters is explained by the late in the game revelation/twist, the performances of them by Casey Affleck ("Committed," "Drowning Mona"), Wes Bentley ("The Claim," "American Beauty") and Eliza Dushku ("Bring It On," "True Lies") aren't much better, while Angela Featherstone ("The Wedding Singer," "200 Cigarettes") and Luke Wilson ("Legally Blonde," "Blue Streak") can't do much in their smaller parts.
Simply put, the overall film feels like a high school production of a major Broadway play in relation to being an effectively creepy, knock your socks off supernatural thriller. All of the elements are in place and the people know what to do, but the end result isn't as convincing or engaging as the real thing.
A bit better in hindsight that how it comes off during its less than ninety minute runtime, the film is hampered by some bad acting, dialogue and an ineffective and occasionally clumsy directorial approach.
All of that collectively gets in the way of what could have been a halfway decent horror flick.
![[Logo]](/images/screenit_logo2.jpg){kind=logo}
