Belmit
07-08-2006, 10:29
Had this film recorded on Sky+ and since I had little to do on a Sunday morning I thought I'd give it a go. I wasn't expecting much - horror films of late have tended to be fairly formulaic and not particularly innovative, and for the first half an hour or so that's pretty much how I felt about this one.
I'm really glad I stuck it out though, it really becomes quite eery and very tense, and they've managed to get the balance just right of making you feel like you have no idea what's going on but compelled to find out rather than getting frustrated with it. Kate Hudson was pretty good throughout too - I never really rated her much since I'd seen very few films she's been in. I have to say though that John Hurt somehow gives an excellent performance as a virtually paralysed stroke victim (or is he...?), doing most of the acting with his eyes, and looking genuinely terrified of what's going on around him.
I don't want to spoil the ending but frankly it was brilliant. I kicked myself for not seeing it coming but I'm really glad I didn't try too hard to work it out because it really was one of those 'OMG, no wai!' moments. At the point where this happened, I said to myself 'if this is how they end it, then that's superb' because it basically flew in the face of the traditional Hollywood ending. Three minutes later the credits were rolling.
After it ended, going back through the film to apply the knowledge I now had meant that some truly awful things had happened in the film, far darker than what appeared on screen. I'm going to have to watch it again to make sense of a couple of things but I was really impressed with what was basically an unhyped, underrated horror, with some great performances to boot.
8/10
I'm really glad I stuck it out though, it really becomes quite eery and very tense, and they've managed to get the balance just right of making you feel like you have no idea what's going on but compelled to find out rather than getting frustrated with it. Kate Hudson was pretty good throughout too - I never really rated her much since I'd seen very few films she's been in. I have to say though that John Hurt somehow gives an excellent performance as a virtually paralysed stroke victim (or is he...?), doing most of the acting with his eyes, and looking genuinely terrified of what's going on around him.
I don't want to spoil the ending but frankly it was brilliant. I kicked myself for not seeing it coming but I'm really glad I didn't try too hard to work it out because it really was one of those 'OMG, no wai!' moments. At the point where this happened, I said to myself 'if this is how they end it, then that's superb' because it basically flew in the face of the traditional Hollywood ending. Three minutes later the credits were rolling.
After it ended, going back through the film to apply the knowledge I now had meant that some truly awful things had happened in the film, far darker than what appeared on screen. I'm going to have to watch it again to make sense of a couple of things but I was really impressed with what was basically an unhyped, underrated horror, with some great performances to boot.
8/10