Original But Over-Hyped

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 1999)

Add another over-hyped film to the worst batch of summer movies in recent memory. I just saw this movie, and I and the three other people I was with just didn't see the big deal. OK, it's like nothing I've ever seen before - granted. It's also like nothing I ever want to see again. I work in the video production business, so believe me, I was happy to see something like that on the big screen. I wanted to like it, but I didn't.
I guess if you're not expecting much, the BWP is something of an accomplishment, and I did think about the last scene for awhile after the film was over. But an hour and a half build-up for a few creepy seconds isn't worth my seven-fifty. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting buckets of blood and scary monsters. I think that's what sunk "The Haunting" - showing too much when you don't need too. But the fact that it all hinges on seeming real, when you know it isn't, works against it. OK - all movies are fake, but good ones seem real within their own worlds. Because this film tries to make you think it's "real fear" on screen, it somehow just seems all the more fake.
The BWP has been plugged as being the "new face of horror", or "the scariest movie in years", etc...well, it isn't. For being a very non-traditional Hollywood movie, it ultimately suffers from the same studio-generated buzz that plagues most of the big blockbusters.
In other words, don't believe the hype.