A Se7en-knockoff with a small budget but a few new ideas

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2004)

What I liked: the story. I have to admit that I was bored for awhile because I thought I figured it out early, only to find out that I was wrong.
Another plus --> this movie tries for the creepy, get-under-your-skin horror as opposed to the cheap startle-scare tactics. And I was surprised to find that after years of watching grisly, bleak films like Seven and Event Horizon that this film was still able to make me wince at times.
What was lacking: a lot. The story was decent but the dialogue was poor. And the two leads in the film are both terrible. A lot of people were commenting that Cary Elwes was bad, and he was, but the guy opposite him is equally regrettable. The sad thing is, that guy doubles as the screenwriter, so you'd think he could do a better job with his own words. Danny Glover is so-so, but he didn't have much to work with. This film so desperately wants to be Seven in tone and style (when the killer espouses his philosophy, it sounds like the screenwriter is trying to remember Kevin Spacey's speeches, but can't quite), and yet this director is no David Fincher. And for some reason, he allowed Elwes to ham it up, so he's not an actor's director.
All in all: decent, but not nearly the masterpiece that all the other Harry Knowles types on this site are making it out to be. I give it a 5 out of 10.