A not-original story, with some changes

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2008)

During a recent discussion of horror movies, this was one of the groups' favorites. I've not seen it, so I asked what it was about, and they told me the plot. It sounded like a book I read recently, and I came to IMDb to see if it was adapted from that book: Running Out of Time, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I found that the only references to influence were to Wuthering Heights and King Kong. From the plot summary and description of the movie here on IMDb, the plot seems to be taken from Running Out of Time, with a few changes here and there to make the movie scarier. Perhaps Shamalyan read the book as a youngster and doesn't remember; I prefer not to think that he actually stole the basic plot.