A plethora of unrealized potential

Rating: 1/10 (3 August 2004)

This is one of the most beautifully produced and finely photographed films I've seen in years. It is eerily haunting at the beginning and you have the niggling fear that you are in for an interesting experience.
Lo and behold, within about forty minutes you find it's all silliness and smoke. I can suspend my disbelief as well as the next guy but after being raised in the woods of Pennsylvania I defy anyone who is blind to run at full speed for more than two steps without running headfirst into a large birch tree. Yet we are supposed to accept that the blind heroine can not only accomplish this feat, but kill the "monster", and magically find her way back home again. Hogwash! Other than a ridiculous premise, mediocre character development and total unbelievability it was a waste of what could have been a truly wonderful movie in the horror genre. What a cop-out. As my wife said as we were leaving (she who never says a bad word about any movie) "That movie sucked" Everyone around us seemed to agree.