I saw this movie because I came across the reviews of some raving fan-boys calling this one a return to form for Carpenter. Frankly, that would not have been enough, but then it had Amber Heard and Lindsay Fonseca in it. So I went.
It started slow and steady and I thought that was a good thing because then the tension would gradually mount towards the end and that the filmmaker is taking his time to get to an awesome climax. But the pace never picked up. In fact, when the big reveal happened, I groaned along with many others present with me. **SPOILER** Multiple-personality disorder? That's it? Seriously? **SPOILER** There are a lot of things going against the movie. One, the acting is bland at best. Second, all the patients are too cute and too SANE to be in a special ward. It was like watching Sucker Punch with 60s clothing and no action. The premise of the movie was also too similar to Sucker Punch except, compared to this, SP did it better and had a lot of skin and action to boot, IMHO. Third, there was no sense of urgency or suspense. All characters had resigned themselves to their fate, so what is the point in fighting. **SPOILER** All except Heard's character, who is at a loss as to why she is being targeted by the ghost. We the audience are left wondering the same even after the movie ends. Why did Alice create the new personality in the first place? **SPOILER** Fourth, for movies with such kind of a reveal, the events leading up to it should feel realistic. Here it did not feel that way at all.
To sum up, the movie is Shutter Island, Identity (which used the multiple-personality disorder more effectively than this one) and Sucker Punch, all mixed together and then diluted to nothing but jump shots of Alice's ghost.
Hardly scary and hardly original.
It started slow and steady and I thought that was a good thing because then the tension would gradually mount towards the end and that the filmmaker is taking his time to get to an awesome climax. But the pace never picked up. In fact, when the big reveal happened, I groaned along with many others present with me. **SPOILER** Multiple-personality disorder? That's it? Seriously? **SPOILER** There are a lot of things going against the movie. One, the acting is bland at best. Second, all the patients are too cute and too SANE to be in a special ward. It was like watching Sucker Punch with 60s clothing and no action. The premise of the movie was also too similar to Sucker Punch except, compared to this, SP did it better and had a lot of skin and action to boot, IMHO. Third, there was no sense of urgency or suspense. All characters had resigned themselves to their fate, so what is the point in fighting. **SPOILER** All except Heard's character, who is at a loss as to why she is being targeted by the ghost. We the audience are left wondering the same even after the movie ends. Why did Alice create the new personality in the first place? **SPOILER** Fourth, for movies with such kind of a reveal, the events leading up to it should feel realistic. Here it did not feel that way at all.
To sum up, the movie is Shutter Island, Identity (which used the multiple-personality disorder more effectively than this one) and Sucker Punch, all mixed together and then diluted to nothing but jump shots of Alice's ghost.
Hardly scary and hardly original.