Wasted potential - Horrible acting

Rating: Null/10 (1 November 2004)

This movie had such promise, with an interesting trailer (which if you've seen you've pretty much seen the entire film) and an interesting premise they easily squander all of this with poor acting, worse editing and just an overall unpolished film experience. If you're reading this review, you've probably already read the premise so let's move right to the good and bad of this film.
Bad - First, the casting of Carry Elwes was the first strike against this movie, his overacting is not only hammy, it's just plain laughable. Need proof? See this film in a theater and check out how many people laugh at parts that are neither funny or meant to be scary. Danny Glover's character is decent but completely out of place. He disjoints the film but does add a bit of excitement into the climax. The pacing of the film felt entirely disjointed, you weren't sure the order of real time events and some of the plot seemed a bit ignorant. This film was not as smart as it thought it was. Comparisons to Se7en really should not have been made because it doesn't really even approach the level of intensity Se7en does. It's truly hard to care for ANY of these characters so I suppose in a way, the killer is the anti-hero of the film.
Good - Overall look of the film was gritty and honestly, the climax was predictable and unsatisfying but very tense. This is one of those "don't ruin the ending" films. But unfortunately they take a decent one shot script and decide to make a franchise out of it. How Hollywood. Overall this film is worth a single watch for horror fans and maybe even some discussion after but not much else. 6/10