Oh! For almost the first 75 minutes of this movie I was pondering why on earth the movie got such a bad rap in general on its release? To me it was basically Disturbia with a girl (I know, this came first, and of course is itself a remake, but bear with me) – a slick thriller, and I’ve said plenty of times how easily pleased I am with those. There’s none of the light-hearted stuff that Disturbia has in its first half hour, but they do at least leave our heroine alone to fret for the majority of the movie, and Camilla Belle (that little girl from The Lost World again! lol too scary, she’s actually officially sexy^TM now) is a strong enough actress to carry it. In this aspect, I guess the movie is almost just a 90 minute extension of the Drew Barrymore opening of Scream, lol.

Simon West is a fairly interesting director, I always compare him to the likes of Tony Scott and Michael Bay since he came by way of Bruckheimer doing the in my opinion fantastic Con Air, and I guess he’s kind of a cheap blending of both of those two. Certainly the suburban household with a fairground in the background is a great opening shot, and he never quite slips up as badly as he did in The General’s Daughter with that awful, “we need emotion! Tilt the camera and make it rain!” moment (I’d elaborate and might even be way off but that is literally all I remember about that movie, lol).

Anyway, that’s the good, and as a thriller I really can’t fault it too much – though I’d love to see the original with Carol Kane. Sadly, though, in the end it falls to the same conclusion Disturbia did – a whole lot of generic running around in the dark made even more ridiculous by the fact the bad guy, who I actually found pretty creepy till he made an appearance, completely reminded me of the guy in the Slumber Party Massacre. Another nice thriller fairly wrecked by a truly blahhhhnd ending.