I'm honestly baffled on why this movie is considered to be so good. I'm seeing all sorts of compliments for this film that I just don't think it deserves. They seem to be based on two main points, that the movie is somehow "atmospheric" or "psychological", and that it basically is like a Hitchcock film.
The first compliment that I see quite often is that this film builds an excellent atmosphere. While this is true to some extent, as the sets are effective in conveying a sense of decay, any type of dread or anticipation just isn't there. Is watching a person film supposed to be tense? Am I supposed to think that he's just crying wolf? Am I supposed to feel helpless? If so, then these all failed horrendously for the following reasons. First, the sheer lack of momentum with the movie makes this 70 minute movie feel twice as long as it should feel. I was considering turning the DVD off by about the halfway mark the lack of energy was so bad. Any sense of terseness was drowned by the sheer lack of nothing going on. Two, there is no sense of whether or not Marvin is seeing things. You can clearly see that the Judas bugs exist, especially if you've seen any of the either movies before this one. I also don't feel helpless because the movie just fails at setting this up. Whenever he misses a key scene, it feels contrived, like it was forced to go this way. On top of that, he doesn't bother to call the CDC, which IS who you call in this series.
I also see a lot of comparisons to a Hitchcock film being thrown about. Now, in the defense of the reviewers, the director himself brought this comparison up, so it's not entirely unwarranted. However, I see a lot of people effectively saying that because it's sort of like one of his movies, that it's automatically good. Now that's just nonsense; that's along the same lines as saying that "Jack" is a good film because Francis Ford Coppola directed it. Sorry, just because it bears similarities to another movie does not equate to the movie being any good.
But what do I know? I'm the same idiot that liked Mimic 2.
The first compliment that I see quite often is that this film builds an excellent atmosphere. While this is true to some extent, as the sets are effective in conveying a sense of decay, any type of dread or anticipation just isn't there. Is watching a person film supposed to be tense? Am I supposed to think that he's just crying wolf? Am I supposed to feel helpless? If so, then these all failed horrendously for the following reasons. First, the sheer lack of momentum with the movie makes this 70 minute movie feel twice as long as it should feel. I was considering turning the DVD off by about the halfway mark the lack of energy was so bad. Any sense of terseness was drowned by the sheer lack of nothing going on. Two, there is no sense of whether or not Marvin is seeing things. You can clearly see that the Judas bugs exist, especially if you've seen any of the either movies before this one. I also don't feel helpless because the movie just fails at setting this up. Whenever he misses a key scene, it feels contrived, like it was forced to go this way. On top of that, he doesn't bother to call the CDC, which IS who you call in this series.
I also see a lot of comparisons to a Hitchcock film being thrown about. Now, in the defense of the reviewers, the director himself brought this comparison up, so it's not entirely unwarranted. However, I see a lot of people effectively saying that because it's sort of like one of his movies, that it's automatically good. Now that's just nonsense; that's along the same lines as saying that "Jack" is a good film because Francis Ford Coppola directed it. Sorry, just because it bears similarities to another movie does not equate to the movie being any good.
But what do I know? I'm the same idiot that liked Mimic 2.