Overrated

Rating: 7/10 (19 November 2002)

I wasn't terribly impressed by this film. Although it's well produced and surprisingly convincing despite it's overly fantastic premise, there are far too many contrived plot conveniences that the audience is expected to either naively accept or overlook entirely.
The story involves a videotape that grants the viewer only 7 days to live after watching it. The origin of this tape is vaguely explained, but the origin of its creator is not. The audience is expected to accept--Deus Ex Machina--that the creator is simply evil, and for all intents and purposes, magic. Why the creator chooses to torment those that watch her tape is not explained. How the creator is able to kill the viewers of the tape is yet another mystery. Indeed, the mysteries build up as the movie progresses (I won't spoil the surprise by revealing these mysteries), but very few are fully explained in the end.
Overall, the story is well filmed, and there are some truly unnerving scenes (my favourite involving a horse on a ferry), but there are too many unexplained plot features. Perhaps this is what happens when one builds a story around a somewhat silly premise.
6 out of 10.