I saw this back in 2012. I found it boring and forgettable. Indeed, I did forget about it until today on the horror boards people were talking about this movie. So I remembered it. I remembered it was lame. And I decided to make this review.
First off, I'd advise you to watch the trailer. If I had watched the trailer before seeing the movie, I highly doubt I would have watched the movie. I am not a fan of that type of low budget cinematography. I reminds me of those bad movies from those crappy $5 horror movie combo packs from Walmart. There's just nothing inspiring about this cinematography.
I also disliked the acting. To put it mildly, the acting was terrible. The actors have virtually no acting experience prior to this movie and it shows. There was this scene where the mother, father, and two brothers are in a garage and the father is being abusive. The acting was so awful I was squirming in my seat. I just wanted to stop watching the movie at that point. I kept with it as a favor to a friend who was lamely trying to score with a chick who was close to someone involved with the production. So he didn't want to be rude and leave her like that. But watching them was a trial. The guy who played the dad was horrible. He looked like he wanted to laugh sometimes. And he just couldn't act at all. The other family members were bad too. But the dad was so awful they actually looked half-way mediocre whenever he was around.
The movie didn't get any better after that part. If you watch the trailer, you'll hear the kid's voice narration. Unfortunately, his narration is throughout the entire movie. His narration is really annoying because his narration sounds stilted and it is painfully obvious he's reading it from a paper as he goes along. I don't expect any Oscar winning narration from the kid but--geez--listening to him really decreased my viewing experience.
Last, but not least, the scares. Is this a horror movie? It has to be categorized as one. But horror fans will object to this because there is neither anything scary about this movie, nor does it bring anything new to the genre. As others have stated, it is much more of a drama-type movie. There is nothing really suspenseful for fans of psychological horror. There isn't a chilling atmosphere. There is little sense of danger. There is no mystery.
For fans of gore, there isn't much of that either. Most of the deaths are off screen. That was a huge letdown. Plus, when there is violence, it isn't strong as you'd expect in a gore horror. For example, the movie will show someone hitting someone else. The camera will stay on the person doing the hitting, you hear the sound, but never see the hit connecting. Instead, you'll see the person getting hit spitting phony blood out of his mouth. I think that's what the movie really relied on to keep the audience interested: the phony blood. But the blood wears off after a while when you realize that's all there is.
All in all, if they took away the serial killer aspect; tightened the script; gotten better actors; and polished to cinematography, this would have been a decent drama. It's the new thing with indie films to use their low budget as some sort of marketing gimmick. The gimmick is as worn out as phony shill reviews on IMDb. I'd advise everyone who is thinking about watching this movie to check out trailer and read all the reviews before seeing this movie.
First off, I'd advise you to watch the trailer. If I had watched the trailer before seeing the movie, I highly doubt I would have watched the movie. I am not a fan of that type of low budget cinematography. I reminds me of those bad movies from those crappy $5 horror movie combo packs from Walmart. There's just nothing inspiring about this cinematography.
I also disliked the acting. To put it mildly, the acting was terrible. The actors have virtually no acting experience prior to this movie and it shows. There was this scene where the mother, father, and two brothers are in a garage and the father is being abusive. The acting was so awful I was squirming in my seat. I just wanted to stop watching the movie at that point. I kept with it as a favor to a friend who was lamely trying to score with a chick who was close to someone involved with the production. So he didn't want to be rude and leave her like that. But watching them was a trial. The guy who played the dad was horrible. He looked like he wanted to laugh sometimes. And he just couldn't act at all. The other family members were bad too. But the dad was so awful they actually looked half-way mediocre whenever he was around.
The movie didn't get any better after that part. If you watch the trailer, you'll hear the kid's voice narration. Unfortunately, his narration is throughout the entire movie. His narration is really annoying because his narration sounds stilted and it is painfully obvious he's reading it from a paper as he goes along. I don't expect any Oscar winning narration from the kid but--geez--listening to him really decreased my viewing experience.
Last, but not least, the scares. Is this a horror movie? It has to be categorized as one. But horror fans will object to this because there is neither anything scary about this movie, nor does it bring anything new to the genre. As others have stated, it is much more of a drama-type movie. There is nothing really suspenseful for fans of psychological horror. There isn't a chilling atmosphere. There is little sense of danger. There is no mystery.
For fans of gore, there isn't much of that either. Most of the deaths are off screen. That was a huge letdown. Plus, when there is violence, it isn't strong as you'd expect in a gore horror. For example, the movie will show someone hitting someone else. The camera will stay on the person doing the hitting, you hear the sound, but never see the hit connecting. Instead, you'll see the person getting hit spitting phony blood out of his mouth. I think that's what the movie really relied on to keep the audience interested: the phony blood. But the blood wears off after a while when you realize that's all there is.
All in all, if they took away the serial killer aspect; tightened the script; gotten better actors; and polished to cinematography, this would have been a decent drama. It's the new thing with indie films to use their low budget as some sort of marketing gimmick. The gimmick is as worn out as phony shill reviews on IMDb. I'd advise everyone who is thinking about watching this movie to check out trailer and read all the reviews before seeing this movie.