A jolly time for masochists!

Rating: 2/10 (30 October 2002)

Despite a fine performance by Naomi Watts and other cast members, including a much welcomed, albeit far too brief appearance by Jane Alexander, this contrived, slick production can easily be called the rich man's "Blair Witch Project". An artifice throughout, the story line follows a reporter's investigation of what appears to be a high-tech haunting replete with French-"New Wave"-styled, nonsense in a linear fashion then falters at the end when it reveals itself to be an unresolved exercise in meaningless destruction, pain, abuse and overall negative values.

If being manipulated by contrived quick cuts, sudden loud sounds and an ultimately inexplicable and malicious list of deaths is your cup of tea this is for you. For those who prefer a more popular form of entertainment, let this one pass and allow it to return to the dark corner of the Dumpster behind the building from whence it came.
Supposedly a cerebral exercise: that, it is not. Appointment in Samara, indeed.