Convincing, suspenseful and scary

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2008)

The suspense is brought rapidly to a peak. At each seemingly innocent or curious encounter we suspect that the intrepid travelers have started on the path to their doom. Yet they continue unharmed and would make us wonder if perhaps nothing is wrong. That is, we would wonder if we didn't know we were watching a horror film. The suspense doesn't slow when the gruesomeness starts. We are sill left wondering who will survive, if they will survive or how they will survive. The director gives away nothing as moment by moment the plot unfolds. The tension doesn't slow as the plot tilts from terror to revenge since every step of the way it threatens to slip back into terror. Even as the film reaches it's conclusion the twisted plot leaves the viewer wondering if that really is the end or if there is one more twist waiting for us after the credits roll. The film is fast paced, scary, convincingly acted, true to it's location and achieves moments of brilliance. Particularly in one scene where a single and seemingly innocent sentence ("We are going to the sauna. Would you like to come?") reveals every secret to Paxton in an awful epiphany.
This is a gore film but in no way a formula slasher film. The bad guys aren't superhuman. The victims aren't stupid people doing even stupider things. They behave like normal people that a rational viewer can identify and sympathize with. A lot of the real gore does move off camera that I would have liked to see but I wonder if the film was risking an X rating if they showed it all.