Good premise, lousy follow-through

Rating: 4/10 (19 December 2008)

I thought the overall concept for this film was brilliant and I still enjoyed it because of the questions it leaves you with. I'm just not sure how the same person who wrote Sixth Sense and The Village could have written this.
The problems for me were mainly in the dialogue, some of the things Mark Wahlberg said he just wouldn't, I mean really. And the woman on the phone to her daughter in Princeton - would the daughter really not have mentioned until asked halfway through the conversation that everybody outside was dead?? I also don't understand why Zooey's character was made to be so weak and flawed, it was never resolved - I mean characters start out that way usually so they can be redeemed through what happens. But I don't think she was, unless it was in her caring for the young girl, but if so I missed it.
And I also had a problem with the fact that the main characters were never hit with this deadly whatever-it-was, even though they were running around outside for most of the movie, instead of getting inside where it would obviously be more safe.
M. Night perhaps needs to have somebody proofread and edit his material in future. He has great ideas, but lately the practical application of them is lousy. If I were a writing teacher, I'd make him do it again.