A Sad and Disappointing Piece of Cheese

Rating: 4/10 (25 April 2006)

I am not a hardcore horror fan but I can handle a seriously disturbing movie as long as it has some artistic credentials behind it or says something relevant about the world (see Seven, Jacob's Ladder, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). Also, I've seen enough gore and making-of docs that that aspect of it doesn't particularly phase me. Having said that, I must say that I was quite disappointed by what could have been a troubling, haunting movie about American paranoia, human violent instincts and what poverty will make one do for money.
Eli Roth just doesn't seem capable of the subtlety necessary to pull that trick off here. He's good and I did like Cabin Fever but he spends too long on the set-up and throws in too many forced plot elements that are needed to validate future events (like seeing the doctor on the train, the oddly placed story of the drowning girl that sets up the guy going back for the Asian girl, etc..). Plus, there's the way-too-over-the-top-to-be-effective special effects gore scenes that take it from horrifying to cheesy.
Like Wolf Creek, another film that focuses on kidnapping and torture over the quick shock of slasher flicks, the most unpleasant and haunting aspect of this film is the screams of people at the whim and mercy of a madman. In that aspect, there were some decent and realistic performances but any emotional punch they packed were quickly neutralized by the overall silliness (I mean, really, that whole eyeball thing was pretty damn silly).
In the end, I've seen scarier. I've seen bloodier. I've seen better. What scares me the most is that there are so many people out there who are so disappointed that it wasn't more hardcore in the violence. That alone makes me wonder if this movie isn't hitting closer to reality that I want to realize.