Outstanding indie, but doesn't live up to the hype...

Rating: 6/10 (5 August 1999)

This is a very good indie feature. It accomplishes what Hollywood is having a hard time doing (producing a genuinely creepy movie), and because it's making tens of millions, it will be analyzed to death, and elements from it will be recycled for years to come.
Basically, the movie uses numerous means to manipulate the audience into feeling major anxiety - not the least of which is the jerky handi-cam shooting which can cause mild motion sickness. Once we're physically distressed, it's easier to work on our minds with the creepy bump-in-the-night psych. Very cool.
Now, it's fine for an indie to be a one-trick pony, but this is not what I expect for seven bucks, so I hope the majors are taking notes (Spoilers ahead):
More character development. Dump the stereotypical teenage arguing, high pitched whining and constant swearing - please! I'm not offended by language, but it gets old.
Giving the audience credit for imagination is the best way to get scares, but hey, throw us a visual bone... a blur, a shadow, a distortion, a bush rustling, SOMETHING.
The end was shocking in its abruptness, but I wouldn't have changed that. I do agree with a previous poster that there should have been wrapup... "stock" news footage of the house, and reporters interviewing people after the cameras and films were found (like in the newer TV trailers). The ending credits hit most of us in the face like a bucket of cold water, and there were groans all around in a theatre filled with teens and twenty-somethings.