Given the elements taken from past movies, a memorable score by Javier Navarrete and art direction sufficient to capture the foreboding chill of desolation populated by overcooked mannequins, the movie still fails to mount tension-filled creeps. Instead, it replaces them with gory — but tepid — shocks that are unsettling, but only momentarily so. Dialog should have been handled better, too. When an upset Carson, in a key dramatic moment, asks "what if the mirrors are reflecting something beyond our reality?" I found it hard not to roll my eyes in disbelief at the banality.
Part horror story, part mystery, the detection picks up when Sutherland channels his 24 persona through Carson after he receives a UPS package from Gary Lewis, the security guard seen running for his life in the film's exciting opening minutes. In the box are news clippings about another security guard, the one who set the department store afire and supposedly murdered his family. Carson's investigation eventually leads him to Esseker and what lies beyond the brick wall in the flooded basement.
Aja trades what little human drama he fosters — built mostly from Sutherland's and Paula Patton's (as Amy, his estranged wife) earnest acting — for an incendiary climax that reminded me of the knock-down-drag-out encounter between Ash and the demon in Evil Dead. I admit it is fun, but seems out of place in a movie that, up until then, had scaled the action around human drama, not special effects. Suddenly it is hell'z-a-poppin' in a battle with a gravity-defying nightmare tossing him through brick walls.
A suspenseful encounter is never realized when Amy battles the demon on home turf. Under the influence of the evil force, her son opens all the faucets and floods the house, creating myriad reflective surfaces for it to attack from. When Patton conveniently removes her jacket so her white shirt can conveniently become saturated with water, I lost all hope for serious direction with this amateurish display of cheesecake for the male audience.
Aja, get serious. Next time, make sure she's not wearing a bra. If you must do it, at least do it right.
Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
Nice to see i wasn't the only one to think of Evil Dead!
Also, that building seemed really out of place in NYC and I did not like how the rules seemed to keep changing....
2 - ILoz Zoc
Hey Chris,
Yes, that building stuck out like a sore thumb. When it's mentioned that it's on 6th Ave, I laughed a little. Great building, but for a NYC audience, it made it hard to swallow the rest of the story.
You sum it up better than I did: the rules keep changing. That's the best way to put it, and it's something you see in a script that's not constructed well from start to finish.
3 - Derek Fleek
What can I say, I had a good time. As for the watered down Paula Patton, braless would have made this a must see. I still think it is worthy of a look.
4 - ILoz Zoc
Derek,
Amen to that. I really like Kiefer Sutherland. He keeps it interesting, and certainly it's worth a viewing, if not in the theater, on DVD. I just wish Aja would focus on the less commercial direction approach. He really is a good director.
5 - Chris Beaumont
I like both Haute Tension (despite the ending) and The Hills Have Eyes remake, plus P2 (which he wrote). This is definitely least among those other films.
I like Kiefer, and he has some nice line deliveries and moments, but this is not a good flick. Kiefer's performance reminds me of Michael Keaton in White Noise, they cut just as he was about to get interesting every time.
6 - assef fiestah
this movie sucked please dont watch it!