Good effort but vastly overrated, stretched out horror flick

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2016)

Sadly so many of these noir/horror movies are made with great effort only to be spoiled by a handful of incredibly lame, stupid and lazy plot points. If you blindly accept the lazy setup, the first 2/3 of the film are well crafted before it devolves into a prolonged effort to keep the story going for an extra 20 minutes or else you'd have just a film an hour long.
The premise - 3 struggling Detroit 20 somethings rob homes by using alarm codes that are accessible to the father of one of the youths and stolen by the father's son. For some odd reason one of the youths heard that a horrible looking home is where an old army veteran lived who received a large settlement from a car accident lawsuit, which claimed the life of his daughter. Why they are sure that this man, who is supposedly blind, are so damn sure that the cash will be stored in the house and that they will somehow be able to find it and extract it is dubious at best. But let's play along with that scheme.
It takes a while for the setup to take place where the trio break into the old man's home to find quite a number of surprises. The first third and the early scenes are well done. The movie moves along at a reasonably quick pace with clichéd characters on the side but they don't really distract from the main attraction. The problems occur when the typical horror film implausibilities begin to take place. And while there is excellent suspense for a good part of the film, it takes the easy way out a number of times which lead to a realistic feeling horror/noir film becoming a bit of a self- parody, which many of them are.
Without giving the film away, the typical elements of horror films are there - characters that are almost impossible to kill because they are needed to prolong screen time. Chase scenes that someone allow characters to escape and show multiple views of the same characters with the attacker stuck in the same place for several different angles so that the protagonist can get away, albeit temporarily. It's not so bad at first but when you're at the 60 minute run time, it starts to become very noticeable.
And the most disappointing part has to be the ending. It's supposed to provide your typical "woah" ending but mine was rolling my eyes at the ceiling at this film's way too hard effort to end up in such a fashion. They forced it badly.
None of these detriments will ruin at least one view of the film. It's totally forgettable derivative drivel. But the suspenseful moments are well crafted and at least for an hour it will keep you entertained and wondering what will happen next. Could and should have been better. It's a B+ -- and at least it's not another dumb Saw torture porn film. This one is more about suspense.