It was horrible, & not in a good way.

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2005)

OK.
All I will say is the movie gets an F-, Adrien Brody gets an A+, & I feel terribly sorry for all of the great actors in this movie who had to recite such horribly written drivel.
William Hurt,Sigourney Weaver,Joaquin Phoenix,& Bryce Dallas Howard should all be awarded Oscars for struggling so valiantly to make sense of some of the idiotic lines they were given.
Poor Joaquin looked as if he'd really rather be ANYWHERE else. William just looked hurt, & Sigourney, come on, I won't quote any verse here, but dear lord, it was bad.
The creature costume was rather hilariously awful. I presume it was supposed to be though, since the only 2 kids who were able to get a gander @ it were a blind girl & a mentally handicapped boy.
The basement-hiding-while-looking-frightened & listening-to-things-go bump-in-the-night??!! is really wearing terribly thin.
I did enjoy the suit one character (Brendan Gleeson) wears that doesn't look 1800's, & the use of electric light on the porches of the homes. At least I hope that is what is what was intended because lanterns/flames do not cast light like that.(Natural Gas perhaps?)
The extra "home movie" by M. Night was more entertaining actually. This had more to do w/the fact that it was only 3:06 minutes in length, & he gets attacked by a German shepherd while wearing acid-washed jeans and a cowboy hat. A flexible flyer is also involved. Great stuff.
Don't waste your money on even renting the DVD please.