Not toooooo bad... but could have been better.

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2001)

[No spoilers]
I have to agree with the comment on the summary page for this movie - they introduced an entirely new character and never developed it, and then suddenly throw them in at the end as one of the killers. It's one thing to make the killer the person you least suspected, but only when the viewer can think back through the movie and realise that it was them all along. Unfortunately in this movie, there were no clues at all to suggest it was them, except possibly when they were on the phone after the stabbing in the school AV room.

As far as scary movies go, it was okay I guess, but the characters - were just so stupid sometimes.. I mean .. the car crash.. that was just ridiculous! - There were so many 'clues' in the film, yet they never came to anything. We see the killer smash in the window then cut the cop's throat, yet Sid and her friend are somehow unable to smash their own windows out, from the inside (she can't kick maybe ?), so they are forced to crawl over the unconscious body of the killer to get out. Then the other cop.. jeeze.. before they drive off, he stands up, with his gun, directly in front of the car, while the killer (who has already killed several people including the other cop, by this point, so there's no doubt that he'd have no problem killing the remaining cop) is in the driver's seat.. and instead of just shooting him, the cop waits until the killer is comfortable and ready to drive, then, stupidly, gets himself run over, and knocked onto the hood.
Okay, so that was stupid, but he's still there, and he's got his gun - so what does he do with it ? Nothing! He just hangs in there waving it at the killer, but doesn't actually fire it.. maybe he doesn't keep it loaded ?
And then... they have the crash, and we get a nice clear full screen shot of the guy dead with his head half through the windshield, and with his hand.... *still* holding his gun. After Sid and her friend get out of the car (after climbing over the killer), they stand there, next to the car... next to the gun, and yet.. seem oblivious to its presence.
The killer has a knife.. a short distance weapon. Wouldn't a gun be handy right about now ?.. but no...... and I was left wondering why the hell they showed us the gun, and the easily smashed window, in the first place.
When you get a full screen closeup on something, it's *supposed* to show that there's something significant in the shot.. but not in this movie. You sure don't have to think to keep up with the plot.
There were lots of other scenes where things could have turned out a lot better if a few more intelligent choices had been made - when the killer was in the dorm, near the start of the movie.. and her cordless phone was cutting out... couldn't she just have gone and used a phone somewhere else ?. Notice how nobody in the movie had a mobile ? .. and how her security system never went off despite her clearly turning it on, then having several people running through the house.
I think the script could have done things a lot better by shutting out the more obvious alternatives, and making the viewer really start to wonder about how they could get out of the current situation. As it stood, there weren't any really scarey scenes, because I never believed there was much of a threat - it was mostly a result of the characters doing something stupid, and then finding themselves in a pretty bad situation.
Having said all that, it wasn't that bad a movie for a horror film. It just wasn't terribly believable either. I still enjoyed watching it, but they could definitely have done better, *especially* with the credibility of the killers when they are finally revealed at the end.
As a comparison, the movie 'The usual suspects' [ http://www.imdb.com/Title?0114814 ] did (brilliantly) exactly what I wanted to see more of in this movie - you don't suspect the real killer, but when they are finally revealed at the end, everything falls into place and you suddenly understand all the clues that didn't make much sense up until then.
Of course, I might be making too big a deal of this - it is only a horror film after all.