Would have been good with 20 minutes deleted

Rating: 5/10 (25 November 2007)

Knock 20 minutes off this film and I'd have enjoyed it more and likely given it 7. For that reason, I'd recommend catching it on video.
The good. The creatures are cool. The overall premise is interesting and dreadful. The dynamic between the lead(artist) and the neighbor guy(lawyer type) starts off interestingly enough. Both are recognizable actors with decent on-screen appeal.
The bad. Dialog. Bad, slow, phony, pretentious, unconvincing and way too much of it. Canned Hollywood characters for the most part. Any decent relationships that develop are quickly discarded. The numerous whispered conversations do nothing to enhance the overall feeling of dread. The goofy attempt at group behavior analysis actually takes away from the scary factor. Chop out 20 minutes of this trash and you have a more watchable movie.
We get several minutes of a foul-mouthed, apocalyptic wack-job. She cusses, rants and raves and reads scriptures all while zombifying the poor locals and pressing them to the brink of human sacrifice. This kind of stereotypical straw-man seems a fixture of Stephen King's work, reflecting his apparent personal contempt for religious folk. Over the top in this flick, in my view, and rather distasteful.
Oh and the ending was uh...different. Not saying it was totally unbelievable, but they just didn't sell me on it.
5 out of 10. Worth catching on video when you have fast-forward handy.