A lot of negative early feedback has forced my hand in defending this film. It's not that bad and I was actually engaged in the story almost to the end.
The biggest complaint is in the acting department. The main leads weren't bad, but the supporting cast barely held on--a similar issue I had with Repo and Saw II, two of Bousman's better films.
Now the plot is fairly original, if somewhat predictable. And I know the religious themes have been done to death, but most horror films end up going down that path. This film simply puts religion front and center. But it is far from a pro-Christian film like "The Rite" or "The Exorcist". The subject matter is more akin to "Lord of Illusions" or "The Ninth Gate".
The plot: Basically, a famous author after having suffered a horrible tragedy and now in hiding is called to his father's deathbed in Spain. And there he uncovers a predestined fate for his family involving the upcoming date 11-11-11.
The low budget seems to work in this film's favor. Remember when a just a shadow or shape in the dark could scare you? The film relies mostly on the mystery and the setting to provide the horror. Only in the last act do "actual" things happen. The CGI effects are fairly bad, but thankfully conservatively used. It's nice for a change to have a horror film try and scare us without grossing us out.
The last act is quite poor, unfortunately. The big setup from the first hour leads us into a predictable and kinda overdone ending. I prefer my conclusions to be either more subtle or more surprising.
I respect what Bousman is doing with these less commercial, indie horror films. He tries out new things with low budgets and seems to get his vision across. I'd rather continue to watch films like this and Repo over the crap that other "visionaries" like Shyamalan have been doing lately with much more money.
With some better acting and a tighter ending it could've ended up a minor classic. As it stands, a nice film.
The biggest complaint is in the acting department. The main leads weren't bad, but the supporting cast barely held on--a similar issue I had with Repo and Saw II, two of Bousman's better films.
Now the plot is fairly original, if somewhat predictable. And I know the religious themes have been done to death, but most horror films end up going down that path. This film simply puts religion front and center. But it is far from a pro-Christian film like "The Rite" or "The Exorcist". The subject matter is more akin to "Lord of Illusions" or "The Ninth Gate".
The plot: Basically, a famous author after having suffered a horrible tragedy and now in hiding is called to his father's deathbed in Spain. And there he uncovers a predestined fate for his family involving the upcoming date 11-11-11.
The low budget seems to work in this film's favor. Remember when a just a shadow or shape in the dark could scare you? The film relies mostly on the mystery and the setting to provide the horror. Only in the last act do "actual" things happen. The CGI effects are fairly bad, but thankfully conservatively used. It's nice for a change to have a horror film try and scare us without grossing us out.
The last act is quite poor, unfortunately. The big setup from the first hour leads us into a predictable and kinda overdone ending. I prefer my conclusions to be either more subtle or more surprising.
I respect what Bousman is doing with these less commercial, indie horror films. He tries out new things with low budgets and seems to get his vision across. I'd rather continue to watch films like this and Repo over the crap that other "visionaries" like Shyamalan have been doing lately with much more money.
With some better acting and a tighter ending it could've ended up a minor classic. As it stands, a nice film.