The Haunting (2009)

Moving to the outskirts never helped anyone's health

This gradually paced supernatural film from Spain gives a little twist on its own history and unfolds with a leaning more for human drama than popcorn entertainment. "The Haunting" is also a deeply involved mystery with several, sometimes cluttered layers that eventually narrow into a main point. It gives more subtle hints than outright telling the viewer what is going on at first to the point of a tinkle or a text message later and you could have missed a key element till they re-explain in the latter portion of the film.

Blanca is found barely alive by priests in a room with others dead around her. She awakens from a coma at an elderly age and gets released by a priest named Miguel de Azpeitia in the sanatorium she's been cared for at. Azpeitia picks up an old film clipping on the ground that Blanca dropped and confronts another priest about feeling guilty for sinning from a prior incident involving a prostitute who could produce miracles but was locked away against her will, only to end up killing herself. Meanwhile a maternity ward doctor named Francesca moves with her husband Pedro, months old baby Pablo and daughter Rosa to a large country manor that was used by a recently deceased bishop called Juan Lorenzo Prada but was a school some 50 years before that. Her husband is worried about her obsessively protective nature of the baby. He's at work while she stays home on leave, only for her to become worse and worse when she claims to hear unexplainable noises and has random hallucinations of little girls that lead her to the attic where something of a dark nature happened. The daughter and Blanca confirm her suspicions, though her husband and boss think that it's her mental health causing her to act erratic from someone lost that was close to her ten years past. Francesca believes differently and contacts Azpeitia through Blanca who looks into it with an investigation to unlock the truth and to possibly absolve himself from his past sin.

"The Haunting" deals with religious politics and hypocrisy in how saints come to be named and miracles made official to the public. The behind the scenes process is selective to the point of manipulation and misconduct. The film is also about letting go of someone from your past, along with trust from mother to son, to then husband to wife even when the odds are stacked against. The movie has some predictability and more than a few cliches but it also manages to throw in some unique qualities and red herrings to its story--some confusing, others a nice diversion--to where it will go next. Though it doesn't always treat its material as edge-of-your-seat gripping or more dangerous when something bad does happen. It seems like Francesca is more helped and warned than harmed to the point of dodging any physically threatening elements and aiming more towards righting those wronged. There are still a few confrontations but the film is more laid back in its delivery of how it gradually unfolds with a sense for drama and mystery than outright horror. It still gives enough pauses and layers to give room to think and develop even if it lacks a continually nervous or jarring nature. The acting--in Spanish--is adequate and believable but the weaving story and well-timed direction seem to be doing a little more of the leg work than having them lug this solely on their backs.

This carries a formula of the upstarting-family-moves-into-a-haunted-house subgenre--ominous signs, local priest, random appearances with ghosts pointing in certain directions instead of telling what they want, along with writing in blood on the walls and all--but it comes with its own individual backstory and characters that feel like people instead of devices put into scenarios to just produce a scream. This is a borderline case of an R rating with one sexually suggestive situation and a few scenes involving blood. Ghost fans just looking to turn their hair white might be disappointed as this isn't outright terrifying as it's more made to be steadily evolving and intriguing with more revelations than sensations. This still has a few chills and a certain secretive atmosphere that's for your eyes only till the truth is unlocked...but can it ever really be with such powerful opposition on both sides of the fence? There are some eerie sounding choirs accompanied with an organ that can be heard in the background that are more demonic than divine sounding. This uses a neat idea to connect scenes of past and present with old, scratchy film reels from the Franco era that gives a little twist on Spanish history that can be appreciated by others not from said country as well.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Elio Quiroga (The Dark Hour)
Link: IMDB

Fragile (2005)

A determind night nurse in a troubled hospital

Amy Nicholls, an American, is called in to replace another night nurse named Susan who unexpectedly left. They're in the process of moving supplies and eventually patients out of Mercy Falls Children's Hospital on the Isle of Wight in southern England. Things are rushed, people are passive and a share just want to clear out and finalize the whole fiasco after a train accident created a delay. They're on a skeleton crew with Amy, the night doctor Robert and an orderly to look after eight remaining special case children, along with a nurse named Helen in alternate shifts.

The old building gives in to some creaks and malfunctions that are at first coincidental and logically explained. Though a trouble-making child named Maggie claims it was a mechanical girl named Charlotte that she uses alphabet blocks to communicate to, with the staff thinking she's just bored and isolated with no parents to care for her. After getting convinced from an incident herself, Amy looks into the records of Simon--a boy who suspiciously broke his bones--which leads her back to Susan and two psychics. With risk of losing her job or sanity, Amy edges on as a catalyst because she believes that something doesn't want to let them leave and to make them suffer despite everyone else brushing the growing number of incidents under the rug with excuses and false reassurances. When more turn over to uncovering the truth, it changes into a race against time to save the children before the deteriorating hospital consumes them.

"Fragile" eventually works into a thriller like pacing for its latter portion with a well timed little twist and some tragedy and sentimental moments. The rest of this English and Spanish made picture flows well enough and has a balance to all sides with events progressively moving along step by step without jumping ahead. Though it starts to feel somewhat like a basic and straightforward formula in areas. Partly of the one random, supernatural occurrence at a time type, and the other part of the "I have to do what's right no matter the odds" kind that's usually seen in murder or political thrillers where morals come into play and the person acts as a crusader. Some areas play out with some predictability and you can depend on it since its upkeep is somewhat simplistic and measured out to the point of having little fat hanging or drifting scenes. Though to its credit, it's a movie that doesn't get muddled or look back and retread, but instead manages to maintain a forward outlook till the growing tension can be released and resolved. Expecting something brand new here and you might be disappointed as it's more tried and true with a few aspects and characters shuffled around.

The abandoned second floor is a dismal place with grime and deterioration. The creepy looking villain that fittingly lives there--that's in the physical form instead of CGI with various contraptions and contorted face--looks effective despite a short amount of screen time. The co-stars are typically set up with specific archetypes--stern boss, shoulder to cry on, information guy--and do their parts well enough since they're not always required to step over with a wide arc of range. Though Yasmin Murphy, who plays Maggie, carries a distinct voice for her age and manages to transition from a bored brat to sympathetic for her ailment and abandonment situation. Elena Anaya, as Helen, feels the most realistic person--as opposed to a caricature or cinematic invention--as a foreigner in another country with a back and forth temperament of the pushed around employee who's job gets on her nerves. Calista Flockhart starts out somewhat neutral and almost comatose--on purpose or not is hard to say since she's popping pills here. She has a few break out scenes from her lull that go from cracked up and stressed out, to then eventually able to carry the strength of those around her as a commanding hero of sorts.



Rating: 7/10

Director: Jaume Balaguero (The Nameless, Darkness)
Stars: Calista Flockhart, Richard Roxburgh, Elena Anaya, Gemma Jones, Colin McFarlane, Susie Trayling
Link: IMDB

The Tomb (2009)

Sleepy actors in atmospheric settings

This is an old fashioned horror romance loosely adapted by an unknown director and John "The Crow" Shirley from an Edgar Allan Poe short story. It also combines primitive science and magic involving a deceitful woman who wants to defeat death at whatever the cost and against whoever gets in her way that's living.

A literature professor named Jonathan, despite being engaged to an attentive blonde named Rowena, gets seduced by an exotic dark-haired eastern European woman called Ligeia Romanova who sits in during his lectures due to a supposed fascination with his work. She's conducting a darker kind of research on her own at the university to cure an ailment called Black Death that's causing her to become progressively weaker and that much closer to dying. Through witchcraft she beckons him to her apartment with indulgences of lust and absinthe, all the while with a grieving fiancee at home and a past lover for Ligeia who was assisting her with fresh corpses beforehand. They marry and Jonathan dips into his deep pockets to purchase back the Romanova Manor in Ukraine that was once in Ligeia's family's name. There Ligeia tries to perfect her diabolical experiments but is getting weaker, which leads to her hold becoming less strong on Jonathan. Suspicions arise from both their caretaker Vaslov, his teenage daughter Loreli and Jonathan himself. He starts to see clearer and brings Rowena back into his life, though Ligeia has one last attempt up her sleeve that might put everyone's life in danger.

The main aspect concentrated on here is the love triangle with everything else coming second or being brought up and not developed at all. There's no strong hero or even a steady character to crutch yourself on as a viewer with the exception of the fiancee Rowena for relating points, though who's not always on screen. The direction, dialogue and performances are hit and miss. The script feel underdeveloped by only giving limited range to the characters and making them seem more like plot devices moved from one place to the next. Jonathan doesn't pose much of a struggle or create a challenge by incorporating a fight between both sides of being entranced and shaking it off. Even the unsurety of Ligeia if she loves him or not--since she keeps him around while killing off everyone else on whim--isn't always given enough subtleties to make you second guess if she's true or not. There's little mystery past a certain point and the pacing is up and down, with the beginning transitions being rushed and not giving enough room to authentically develop the characters. The middle section drags with some filler material that doesn't carry any tension or captivation but more or less padding to the simplistic story. Not to mention there are flashbacks that return to a scene that happened earlier as if they didn't have a life beforehand. This picks up the flow for its wrap up, though its impact was somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic.

Sofya Skya, as Ligeia, no doubt brings a certain enchanting beauty but her portrayal is somewhat neutral in that she doesn't always bring more to herself that would be intriguing past a certain point. Her voice is often flat and her degrees of facial expressions limited, as if she's not affected by anything around her than indifferent. Wes Bentley is in a trance half of the time, giving a stupid and confused grin while walking around like a love sick zombie. Both Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts play unexceptional, one-dimensional parts with Madsen the drunk, layabout father of Rowena and Roberts the humble caretaker of the Romanova Manor.

As a horror film, this isn't scary or frightening but there's still a certain atmosphere at points to where the settings are periodically shot in between scenes. The R rating was most likely for cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption than anything else along the lines of gore or nudity. This was supposed to be more of a character driven tale with the technical science and supernatural aspects grazed over for more of a tone and to concentrate on human tragedy. Except the strength of the film ended up being the set designs, cinematography and music than the performances and dialogue. It's as if they don't always switch out of a lower gear, causing their performances to only break even across the board instead of doing something that expresses dramatic emotion or to remember them by as a specific personality instead of merely an actor reading lines.

Rating: 3/10

Director: Michael Staininger
Stars: Wes Bentley, Kaitlin Doubleday, Sofya Skya, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Madsen, Eric Roberts, Mackenzie Rosman
Link: IMDB

Dark House (2009)

Generic title #54,732: "Dark Review"

Fourteen years ago a young girl leaves her two friends outside the gate while she bravely struts her proud self into the Darrode house for foster children. Instead of being able to go back outside to call her friends chicken, she finds dead kids her age everywhere and a woman grinding her hands to the bone in the garbage disposal. Present day and Claire's shrink suggests that she returns in order to let go. By sheer luck, she gets her chance when an eccentric, cane-wielding man named Walston hires her and the advanced acting class she's in to perform as various horrific characters for a haunted house tour in the Darrode residence.

Claire muzzles her past fears that spring up in the form of hallucinations while her everything's-a-joke acting companions don't take any of the over-the-top theatrics seriously. Walston unveils a system with computer generated holograms that are positioned around the house that look real to the new performers. It acts as a cover up since the movie wastes little time stating it's haunted by the past red-headed care taker Mrs. Darrode herself when she infects the computer system with a ghostly virus. Meanwhile, two reporters are given a tour first to test the effectiveness with authentic looking results. A glitch causes the holograms to turn physical and go on a sadistic killing rampage with the people trapped inside.


The initial idea is to take haunted houses to the next level with physically painless interactions that get as close to the person as it can get--and then from there if they go haywire. Though the film doesn't fully step outside of being a gimmick to get inside a specific fear, often jumping right into them with a cheap and momentary shock that has no staying power. The bloody scenes fall flat as a result. Not to mention the house itself isn't always given distinctions besides a certain hallway or even made out to be alive with the exception of windows opening and closing on their own. The story is ambitious with varying tones, characters and events but then handles a share of it like an underachiever by not taking it with much merit. The film closes on an ambiguous note but has too many conflicting clues as to what it could be while not balancing an intriguing middle. The cast is full of caricatures and their interactions are superficial at best--goth, comic, jock, ditsy, damaged--and the message about religion being put down kids throats had no punch since it was just thrown in and treated second to every other hollow distraction.

The tone of the picture goes in and out of seriousness with Claire trying to cope to then being purposely cheesy with hammy lines and jokes in between. It's often overly fun to the point of being goofy, making it a challenge to feel anything substantial when the actual horror comes into play. It seems too self-aware of its own shortcomings: pointing them out and doing them anyway, as if it was more doctoring its story than being on top. Meghan Maureen McDonough, as a co-host with lesbian tendencies towards the hot blonde, had some effective comic timing despite the picture never knowing which tone it wanted to project. Jeffrey Combs actually feels like he knows his lines front and back and treats his role as Walston with more care and personality than the younger cast. Diane Salinger was impressive and ends up being the best thing about the whole experience despite her limited amount of dialogue. She doesn't hold back in the slightest with a truly psychotic portrayal--contorted facial expressions and demonic voice and all to make any man out there with a pulse impotent--as the red-headed school teacher with a fiery temper.



Rating: 3/10

Director: Darin Scott (Caught Up)
Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Meghan Ory, Diane Salinger
Link: IMDB

Pig Hunt (2008)

Pigs are far out, man

Combining aspects of "Deliverance" with backwoods folks and a sense of adventure, along with "Razorback" and a setting with a life of its own and a legendary creature hiding in the midst, "Pig Hunt" produces a mishmash of genres that's more fun than completely serious with a hippie cult that's both prone to Zen and violence thrown in for good measure.

A man with the fitting name of John Hickman heads out to his late uncle's ranch in the sticks with his girlfriend and three other friends from the city for a hunting weekend. Their first stop is the general store that leads them to the legend of the Ripper--a supposed 3000lb pig--as well as a confrontation with a muscled, sword-wielding guy who looks like an ancient warrior walked into the wrong movie or thought he was at a convention for "Xena: Warrior Princess." The area isn't known for its steady employment, so a share of the dwellings look run down and lived in by dirty, grumpy rednecks who use the local forest for perfecting their aim at the animals.


They tentatively team up with John's two old childhood friends who've since took the path of drugs, alcohol, cruelty, perversion and good ol' hunting in between to everyone else's discomfort. There's a share of posturing with each person thinking they're the best to the point of a who-can-puff-out-their-chest-the-biggest contest rather than who can actually shot the straightest. There's a building tension in the air that could burst at any moment that's both annoying with no one but John and possibly his girlfriend Brooks, who's proving she's got the stuff, to lean on with a backbone. But it still proves to be somewhat engaging as to who or what could set off the balance thinly held together by condescending remarks. Soon enough the boars are called, someone gets injured, human remains and marijuana crops are found, and then ulterior motives come into play. The characters go separate paths and it turns over to a human on human blood sport on someone else's turf. Though there's a third party lying in wait that makes the local degenerates in town look a few steps closer to normal.

The third act feels a little underrealized but still comes as a surprise and carries some mystery about how, where and why. Though it's most likely for the best because the more it's thought about the less it makes logical sense. Some of the transitions and editing have places of awkwardness but a share of events flow from one heated aspect to the next. There's some subtext attempted with John and a past in Iraq but then it's dropped to keep it more in light of exploitation. "Pig Hunt" is not a movie that causes the brain to kick in but hits enough surface sensations to keep the popcorn moving from bowl to mouth without pause unless it's a choke or a what-in-the-heck remark. The quicker pacing doesn't give time to scratch beneath the surface but a number of in-the-now events happen to keep one's attention locked and focused with surprises and a share of uncomfortableness about being so far from home and encountering unwelcoming people that seem like from another place and time. Like "Razorback," the wild boar is shown the least amount while the human characters are developed more till they meet up. Les Claypool, the frontman from the band Primus, layed down the music and played a smaller part as a "preacher" who lets his gun do all of his sermons. The soundtrack is a mixup of almost genreless music apart from itself with unconventional and discordant layers and an almost boondocks feel with an acoustic and gibberish twang.


This is more of an offbeat adventure-thriller than an outright horror, but that doesn't stop it from including point blank injuries and a share of gory wounds anywhere from knees busted in to eyes gouged out. "Pig Hunt" is no doubt an out there story that's about as unlikely to happen than being held hostage by a group of clowns robbing a donut shop with flamethrowers, but this is never short of something bizarrely humorous or to leave one ill at ease, not to mention some individual characters with their own personality to remember, while others can be forgotten but were most likely there to up the body count which us blood-thirsty viewers crave.

Rating: 7/10

Director: James Isaac (The Horror Show, Jason X, Skinwalkers)
Stars: Travis Aaron Wade, Tina Huang, Howard Johnson Jr., Rajiv Shah, Jason Foster, Nick Tagas, Bryonn Bain
Link: IMDB

Hunger (2009)

The threshold for civility

This is a low budget, single location horror about human beings put in a pitiful situation to see how long they can keep civil. The experiment is controlled with only one goal in sight, so the events unfold more gradually than a natural occurrence as the characters have to get adjusted to their pseudo environment if they choose to give in. Movies like "Saw" and even "Kill Theory" in the same year treated their captives with a little more engaging, over-the-top games and personality than this, which leaves the more measured out "Hunger" with more of a message but still left with some areas that are better described in theory than actually played out for the cinematic experience.

A woman, later named Jordan with a medical background, wakes up alone in the dark with another female screaming for help. Soon enough there are five total in the same dire situation with no clue as to how or why they're there. The lights turn on to reveal a different room that has barrels of water and a hole for sanitation. Meanwhile a man is shown operating controls and cameras and jotting down notes to his own superior satisfaction, as if he knows what's to happen next. Yet, little does he know what the final result will yield... The captives try and pick up common clues amongst themselves as to why they're there when their true answer comes when they find a scalpel and a message along with it: "The average human body cannot last for more than 30 days without food."


This shares a formula of past efforts, which can take away true shock, though it actually tries to take the torture subject more seriously with a little more to think about than its past counterparts in horror that spilled all its guts in the first scene. That might have been refreshing for more of a psychological experience, except the issue is this single location film doesn't fully shed its skin to be more than just a concept and seems to play it so basic at times to the point of keeping the audience unconcerned. Their dreariness is felt except to the point of tedium for the viewer as well. This gives little snippets about themselves to keep up some kind of mystery element but they aren't always given enough to make them steadily captivating. The medical background of Jordan feels more included to provide answers than an inherent trait. Even potential for a drama angle feels rudimentary about who they are up till then.


There are flashbacks for a tragic event with the kidnapper. The transition of what made him get to the present point or why he never let it go is eluded to the point of being somewhat far-fetched, especially considering how orderly and productive he is in present state. But, on the other hand, probably rightfully so as it might bring into play logistics and it does give a self-fulfilling reason albeit a lunatic one. A few goals and some false hope occurs but aren't enough to be a driving point as a layover till the desperate hunger begins. If you happen to watch the doom and gloom local news, you'll realize how vile people can get, though double that with the desperate set of circumstances by this point here.

There are some noticeable inconsistencies when it skips ahead some days with not only their clothing and appearance but their behavior as well, which can take one out of believing it's all really happening. For a low budget film there's still less areas to compensate on than others that have patches left and right for their lack of production. The performances come with some hits and misses--such as some scenes being over or underplayed--but are mostly adequate for what they're given with a basic script that doesn't always come with a full outline of where they're coming from.

The message of "Hunger" doesn't seem to be about putting fear into a viewer to where it can happen to them. The events go from modest beginnings to balls to the wall for what the captives are capable of. It shows once someone gives in or reaches that point there's no going back. When people act terrible all of the time those with restraint and conviction stand out instead of what should be the other way around. That sentiment gives this film a certain level of hope for a horror film, albeit still a small shimmer for humanity's sake.

Rating: 5.5/10

Director: Steven Hentges (Jacklight)
Link: IMDB

Road Kill (2010)

Stranded and no way out except a road train

Two gals and two guys in the middle of the remote, dusty, sweltering outback in Australia get at first taunted and then hit by a "road train": a large semi-truck pulling two double long trailers. Their own car is wrecked and one of them is injured. The only mode of transport back anywhere is the road train up ahead that hit them just prior but now stopped. They approach, but no one is inside. A man appears out of nowhere and starts to shoot at them. They take off in the gigantic vehicle to get away.

The four soon find themselves in another bind as they mysteriously pass out and are parked off to the side of the road and the engine won't restart. Two head off to find help but then part ways to a supposed shack that was seen despite being passed out, and the other awaits a car to miraculously drive through. Tensions start to flare with the stress of the situation about two of them cheating in the past and the new girl being the third wheel. They soon find out something strange is going on as they start to feel off, the truck's running on who knows what and the back of the trailers enclose some more odd items.

This was professionally shot but could have gotten some more closeups for tension, and the acting was for the most part adequate if not award winning. Though it's hard to take the character Craig (Bob Morley) seriously as he does the suave and charming remarks on point but forces the tortured and dramatic scenes with facial expressions that don't line up or believably translate. Some portions feel like "eerie" filler by luring you along with ambiguous hints as to what's really going on and how it all functions. Things sometimes work, sometimes don't and are passed off on either being all so "weird" or as an in-joke and blamed on dingos; seems too convenient for the writer to not have to fill too much backstory to either keep it completely mysterious or some of the mechanics just plain don't work. It mainly concentrates on the horror of it by showing how they got trapped by a revolving door, as well as it goes to show that if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere that the people you thought of as closest to you are now your biggest competition like the underlying theme present in "The Descent."

This isn't new stuff going on here, as this was a play on "Christine" and "Maximum Overdrive" where your disbelief is suspended to ignore the facts and leave room towards the supernatural. Though there were too many plot holes and unexplained occurrences going on. The biggest mistake the filmmakers did here was to leave enough down time between significant scenarios happening to be able to pull it apart as a viewer with nothing else to do in the meantime. Keep us busy and our imaginative minds will open, otherwise it's going to be crossed arms and side-to-side head nods. If they closed the gaps in their story, made the flow constant and more thrilling, and explained a little more backstory, this actually had the potential to be a better experience.

Rating: 3/10

From Black to Red recommends instead: "Christine." This is a film that involves some commentary about the geek turning into the cool guy when his new car gives him the power to do so.

Director: Dean Francis
Stars: Bob Morley, Sophie Lowe, Georgina Haig
Link: IMDB

Grimm Love (2006) - Part 1 of 3: Internet Death Fetish Trilogy

A heavy-handed sympathy piece

This was inspired by the real life case of Armin Meiwes who put an ad over an Internet site looking for a willing victim to be slaughtered and their flesh consumed. What made the case so unusual was he was not only serious but another man named Bernd Jurgen Brandes obliged apparently without being physically forced as a share of the event was captured on videotape. "Grimm Love" is a tale that paces as a dark narrative drama with a fictional college student named Katie Armstrong, played by Keri Russell, returning to where these two lived in Germany in an attempt to get inside their heads for a research paper.

Instead of concentrating on horror and shock, the filmmakers switch back and forth between the present with Ms. Armstrong and also in the past with the two men who eventually meet up in a kind of twisted, interconnected fate. Oliver (based on Meiwes) is shown as far back as adolescence with his father leaving, trouble fitting in at school, as well as having no life apart from taking care of his ailing mother. He's alone and looking for companionship, though his way of connecting with people isn't hugs, kisses or long conversations, but instead a longing fixation of consuming the flesh of someone special to feel stimulation and closeness.

Simon (based on Brandes) is a homosexual who fears showing his feelings in public out of misunderstandings and ridicule. He has severe depression and searches for a sense of belonging through some normal and not so normal ways. He looks at extreme fetishes on an Internet chatroom as a way of feeling alive from a life that never accepted him. In 2003, Gay Chinese actor/composer Leslie Cheung was successful but still committed suicide by jumping off a building, likewise Simon also has things going for him, though it's too much and he wants to meet his end with symbolism that directly "severs" ties with his burdensome sexuality that gives him a guilt complex from his mother's suicide at an early age.

Dodging the pulse-pounding route of "Silence of the Lambs," this comes across more like "Kalifornia" by hearing the thoughts and experiences as they come through with narration. It also flows as slow as Cronenberg's "Spider" in an attempt at an on-the-surface character study of these atypical individuals' thought processes and motivations. Though the college student's montages about how these two men affect her take up extra screen time away from finding out more. There are metaphors and poetic wordings interspliced to sway the audience towards deep sympathy for these two fractured individuals. Sometimes making you think with introspection, but at other times being desperate to make a point and forcing their way in, like some of Keri Russells' obvious voice overs instead of letting the camera do the talking.

"Grimm Love" isn't going to be like watching a biopic on the History Channel by just stating the events as is, as the filmmakers are doing select reporting to be more convincing towards a certain compassionate, sentimental way of thinking than letting your own thoughts flow free. To some it's going to be touching, to others it's going to be sympathy for the devil. The heavy leaning towards the first here can take away from the experience as it feels written with a prior agenda in mind, not to mention before all things were considered in the case as the real events took place in only 2001 and an overturned verdict came in 2006 when this came out. I like the angle of diving into their background even if it breaks psychology down for the layman, though this would have worked better as a biography with anecdotes from relatives, friends and experts. Or if a story is to be had, something like the route taken with "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," where the director of that film said he feels that he shouldn't have to decide a stance for the viewer, that that's up to them.

This isn't an exploitation film that takes advantage of real events such as "Men Behind the Sun" did, as it's more suggestive than showing candid nudity and bodily infliction like "Cannibal" about the same events. Though by the time it closes--right after the infamous scenario between the men that's akin to the real life events in "In the Realm of the Senses"--it can't seem to decide what it wanted to be. In the beginning and middle it was going out of its way to reason with the audience that these guys aren't just a couple of kooks with mental issues like the media sensationalized. Though by its close they left the story up in the air and ambiguous with the young woman being either deeply moved or having a change of heart. It makes me believe she was only included as a ploy for the writers to speak through her and then at the end decided it was time enough to let the audience choose. Not to mention at an inopportune time as it ends abruptly and doesn't show what happened next.

Rating: 4/10

Stars: Keri Russell, Thomas Kretschmann, Thomas Huber
Links: IMDB, Real story link