Almost a great film

Rating: 8/10 (22 September 2013)

This is a terrific thriller, done the way it should have been done in terms of script, cast, sets, everything. The problem is that a basic cog in the plot is just wrong. The explanation for why the crimes were committed (I'm trying hard to avoid spoilers) was to make people turn away from god. I believe that most of us know that nearly all child abductions by strangers are sexually motivated, but this movie goes out of its way to assure us that the girls were "never touched." Well, then, why keep them alive, just semi-conscious in the back room or in a hole in the ground? It's as if the terrible violence committed against one innocent in this movie were all the makers felt we could bear; the thought that the survivors had been raped apparently made them more queasy than what was done to a mentally deficient man. Had they been brave enough to allow the completely reasonable sexual motive be behind the crimes, this would have been, for me, a perfect movie.