A muddling attempt at a message movie in the guise of a horror film. I gave it 4 stars only for the idea and the acceptable effort by the main female leads.
There were quite a few problems with this film that they can't blame on an obviously low budget. Their main issues could have been avoided by a simple logic check and exploring the emotional depth of the main characters as genuine, fully-fleshed human beings dealing with a difficult and painful situation--An approach that they mostly failed to use (though they did provide a meager if emotional and surprisingly common-in-real-life back story). There was so much opportunity lost--they could have discussed sexual identity, unrequited love, the cost of pretending to be someone else, love, loss, death...so many powerful emotions and themes that were either ignored or barely acknowledged.
Despite the message, it seems that the movie fell to simply trying to be a standar horror film and to increase it's scare value using cheap tricks that didn't do anything to propel the storyline, though in some cases it did increase the dramatic tension. Mostly, it saw fit to utilize the worst possible stereotypes of men as vile, violent misogynist pigs who will simply lose their minds at the idea that they might never ever have a woman ever again. While they tossed out some lame explanation for the mass societal breakdown (perhaps suggesting some kind of zombie-like insanity; this breakdown apparently takes place in a matter of HOURS, everywhere, worldwide! even though statistically only a fraction of the population would even have been exposed---it flat didn't work. It just made no sense.
They missed a great opportunity to explore a meaningful subject, opting for low rent theatrics instead. In the end the story just fell apart. You might want to watch as an exploration of the fundamental idea that we'd try to "cure" homosexuality if we could, and the potential (if bizarre in this case) consequences--which also serve as an indictment against science and social engineering. You might want to watch as a critiquing project--DON'T do it this way! This was an idea that had so much potential....but failed. Perhaps he could try again, with a clearer vision of what he wished to accomplish.
There were quite a few problems with this film that they can't blame on an obviously low budget. Their main issues could have been avoided by a simple logic check and exploring the emotional depth of the main characters as genuine, fully-fleshed human beings dealing with a difficult and painful situation--An approach that they mostly failed to use (though they did provide a meager if emotional and surprisingly common-in-real-life back story). There was so much opportunity lost--they could have discussed sexual identity, unrequited love, the cost of pretending to be someone else, love, loss, death...so many powerful emotions and themes that were either ignored or barely acknowledged.
Despite the message, it seems that the movie fell to simply trying to be a standar horror film and to increase it's scare value using cheap tricks that didn't do anything to propel the storyline, though in some cases it did increase the dramatic tension. Mostly, it saw fit to utilize the worst possible stereotypes of men as vile, violent misogynist pigs who will simply lose their minds at the idea that they might never ever have a woman ever again. While they tossed out some lame explanation for the mass societal breakdown (perhaps suggesting some kind of zombie-like insanity; this breakdown apparently takes place in a matter of HOURS, everywhere, worldwide! even though statistically only a fraction of the population would even have been exposed---it flat didn't work. It just made no sense.
They missed a great opportunity to explore a meaningful subject, opting for low rent theatrics instead. In the end the story just fell apart. You might want to watch as an exploration of the fundamental idea that we'd try to "cure" homosexuality if we could, and the potential (if bizarre in this case) consequences--which also serve as an indictment against science and social engineering. You might want to watch as a critiquing project--DON'T do it this way! This was an idea that had so much potential....but failed. Perhaps he could try again, with a clearer vision of what he wished to accomplish.
