Good idea but didn't go anywhere

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2004)

I saw this movie long after it was released. I rented the video from the local library. I knew the bare outline of the movie, which is what you learn in the first 5 minutes. I thought this is a great idea, using a supposed documentary made by the actors as the basis for a movie. It occurred to me that there were all kinds of possibilities of using the camera to reflect the relationships between the actors - what was filmed, what was left out, who was doing the filming, etc. None of this was done. The 3 college students in the film had a collective vocabulary of about 100 words, every other one of which was an expletive. They had no historical or philosophic interest in their project. They apparently did no prior research and seemed to take the whole thing as some sort of a joke. It was apparent from the start of the movie that they were all going to die and I found myself not particularly caring. If I had been camping with this trio I would have been tempted to strangle them right from the beginning. God they were shallow and boring. Needless to say I did not find the film frightening, which was the whole point.