Really overrated but rather well-made

Rating: 8/10 (23 August 2012)

While babysitting for her neighbors, a teen finds her friends being stalked and killed by a masked madman on Halloween night as his doctor begins rushing through town trying to halt his rampage.
This is a rather confusing and really tough film to talk about. One of the main issues is that of familiarity, in that this has been replicated and imitated so often that, the original loses its power and that indeed has happened here. Most of the different tactics and clichés apparent here have been done so often that it doesn't really feel special that we got those tactics started out here. From the preoccupied minds obsessed with sex and drinking to notice the killer, his usage of a mask to hide his identity, the butchery done on his victims and the heroine able to outlast his onslaught have all been done to death since this that there doesn't feel anything special about them being placed here. The lack of gore doesn't help either, as it tends to give this one such a dry feel that, due to the low body-count it really has a big problem here in actually being original, which when combined with it's slow pace makes for a rather problematic viewing. If you go in looking for a well-made film, it's actually really good in that regard with plenty of suspenseful moments, some innovative tricks and a great assortment of stalking scenes wrapped together, but as a whole it's not as great as it's been made out to be.
Rated R: Violence, Nudity, two sex scenes, some language and mild drug use.