Deus ex machina ruins it

Rating: 5/10 (4 September 2011)

This movie is really a mixed bag for me. It's got a very strong, very creepy survival-horroresque first hour with believable characters, a tight plot and the necessary vagueness of the actual threat. And a - at least for me - ridiculously far-fetched character development through the second half culminating in a blueprint "what the...!?"-ending.
But first things first: So we get a short exposition of a family spending the night in their cellar because of a t-storm. The next morning, dad and his son go get some supplies at a local store to fix the damaged house. There are a lot of people there, sirens howling, mist coming up, everything's foggy, people die in the fog and things roll from there...
As i said, the first 60 minutes are really building up suspense, there are a lot of things going on, lots of different creatures and especially the scare/action scenes are acted out very believable. Some of the characters are a little cardboardy (like an New York lawyer or some redneck types) but nothing too silly. There are a tad too many characters put into this first half so you really can't relate to any of the early deaths; Oh, she died, OK, who was she again?
Unfortunately, it goes downhill from there. The group dynamics of the survivors are just too exaggerated, the consequences unbelievable to the point where they're outright ridiculous. The movie starts smelling of wannabe religious/social criticism and honestly, I think this should have been better left out altogether. As for the conclusion, without spoiling anything; The final sequence lacks credibility and the "dramatic twist" is so "inverted deus ex machina" it made me rub my eyes in disbelief...
So well, do I recommend it? I guess it's okay'ish if you got nothing else to watch... Just don't try to spend a lot of money on it...