James Wan, 2004
8.0
a surprisingly excellent creepy flick (man did it creep me out). there was something uniquely macabre and ghoulish about this film. i wasn't expecting that, i thought it would be another hack 'em up passing itself off as original worth your money. i finished watching it at 3:30 am and i had to turn on every light in the apartment to check every nook and crany before going to bed :) one major sour note, though -- Cary Elwes. what a fucking moronic performance that was. right from the start i felt he sucked (and that other guy too, to a much lesser extent. but i felt that was due more to poor character writing, which this film has a lot of. they were definitely underwritten. something they could work on with the sequel). that doesn't help. but the creative writing, especially from the killer's perspective, and assured direction and editing, make this film a little gem. not perfect, but screenwriters James Wan and Leigh Whannell have definitely struck something somewhat original here. and without riding the asian horror genre, i'd say the creepiness definitely has something of that quality to it. i must say i was surprised by how much i liked it. i was expecting another screenplay barely hung on a single idea or 'cool' new ways to kill off characters. but this one is actually strong enough to stand on its own and has its own personality. it doesn't have that Friday the 13th Part VII one-up-manship feel to it. they've been talking about making a Saw 2 for a couple of months now. watching the film i wasn't sure that could hold up and pinned it on producers eager to make a buck off a sleeper hit, thus draining another film from its originality. but you know what? when the film ended i was actually looking forward to another film. i actually saw it working out real well.
Posted by Anonymous | 11:32 AM
