Too much hype, too little substance

Rating: 4/10 (31 August 1999)

This was an OK movie. It wasn't a great movie and I don't see what the big deal is about it.
Credit where credit is due: The movie was made with a tiny budget and no-name talent. With that in mind, they turned out something that was watchable. However...
The movie was not scary - I had it figured out in about 15 minutes. The movie contained barely 30 minutes of interesting/original material - let's face it "scared folks running around in the dark being chased by some unseen demon" was done in Alien 20 years ago. Trade the trees for a space ship and you'd be hard pressed to tell the two apart - except that when Alien came out it was new and interesting.
The "handycam's eye" view gets physically nauseating pretty quickly (ok, perhaps I'm more susceptible than others). It gives the movie it's "unprofessional" feel, but quickly starts to detract from what little story there is.
The hype engine that inundated us for weeks in the lead up to this movie is partly to blame for my opinion. Frankly, the hype was better than most of the movie, and if there had been less hype, perhaps the few merits of this movie would have shone through better than they did.
Sadly, there'll probably be a sequel.