Great concept, but not fully realized.

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2008)

This movie has a great concept. Old school monster movie with a focus on horror, and modern special effects. Where it falls flat is lack of terror. Events that should have been absolutely terrifying take too long to develop. Much too often you are alerted to the presence of danger before the actual event happens. Lets be clear, I'm not talking about foreshadowing here, I'm talking about seeing something, waiting a few seconds, and then seeing it actually do something. It allows your brain to brace its self for what is certainly going to happen, all but removing the absolute terror that should be felt.
Aside from that, my only other complaint is lack of realism, notably power being on when it certainly wouldn't be if the events in the movie actually took place. Aside from seeming impossible, lack of light would have helped to add to the atmosphere. Other than these issues, the movie was definitely enjoyable, had a unique filming style (camcorder first person) and very high production values. It is possible that they had to tone down some elements to stick to a PG-13 rating.