It couldn't get any worse....or could it?

Rating: 1/10 (20 August 2006)

I have never posted a comment on here ever, but this movie was so horrible that I was compelled to do so. Now let me take a few seconds here so that I can try to put into words what I feel I should say. Yeah its that bad. OK. As a true fan of the horror genre, I have seen my fair share of BAD horror pictures, it comes with the territory and especially these days, but this one definitely takes the prize. There were sooooooo many things that were wrong with this movie that to list them all here would be next to impossible but let me begin with the first of many.
The first ingredient needed to make a good picture is naturally a well written script. Then you throw in a talented director et voila. I would not be surprised if Alexandre Aja, the director, wrote the whole script on toilet paper on a trip to the bathroom. Is it possible to make a decent film out of a mediocre script? Yes. And many have done so in the past. But calling this script mediocre would be doing this film a favor. The characters are just so one dimensional and unlikeable that its just sad. Half way through the movie I really did not care whether or not any of them lived at all. The film makes absolutely no effort to draw you in. I mean granted this is fiction and sometimes we have to suspend belief and just go with the story, but there were so many scenes where I just sat there thinking "no thats ridiculous, how could that be happening, this makes no sense." I'm not gonna go into specifics to spoil anything but how could someone write scenes like that? Could you at least make the littlest effort at writing something believable?
The cinematography, which was pretty decent, tries to achieve a certain mood, yet its all offset due to the film's pathetic direction, lousy acting, horrible script, extremely slow pace (in the beginning) and over the top gore.
I was and still am extremely disappointed. The whole thing lacked style and substance.
As for originality, wait...what originality? This film was a cross between "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Wrong Turn" with all the good parts left out. It's unbelievable how Hollywood continues to churn out these big budget, cookie cutter character, no story movies. I wish I could have rated this movie a zero, too bad thats not an option. Do not waste your time, RUN just RUN, hell run for the hills if you like, just stay away from this movie.