This film is like browsing in the fridge, late at night when you have the munchies; there's a piece of pizza, a slice of meatloaf, a spoonful of potato salad, a deviled egg ... stuff you've had before that doesn't add up to a proper meal. Genre buffs might have some fun spotting the past film's this movie borrows it's scenes from and there are a lot of them. I did. This is Frankenfilm, stitched together from limbs and parts of other films, a dog here, a basement there, a creeping insanity here, a dark ooze from the floor, wraiths, a marriage sabotaged by the supernatural. There are scenes in the movie that would have sizzled if that sizzling hadn't already been burned into our cinematic psyche by better movies. Still I found it hard to hate this movie. I'm not sure why. It didn't have heart and didn't even pretend to lunge for new ground. I suppose those of us who love horror in cartoons, poetry, fiction or film don't mind rummaging around in the old and familiar. I know that while watching this movie it reminded me of how much I liked this or that movie and caused me to want to rent them and see them again. I would advise everyone to not bother (a caution that is lost on the diehard aficionado - we will watch anything in hopes of finding even one "nugget" to remember). I'm happy to report this film has one such nugget and frustrated to report it is a structurally cruel and wasted nugget. That nugget is the film's first five minutes. Watching it I remember settling into my chair and bracing myself. I thought, this might, maybe, perhaps, potentially could be one of those small films where those involved have a dark and sinister bent and are going to take you on a wicked roller coaster ride rocketing and ricocheting through a sidestreet of hell ... but no. I dont' want to say anything else about the film's beginning since that is the movie's shot at redemption though it redeems not. It commits a fatal error, it packs its wallop at the beginning instead of the end. Don't bother, unless you like snacking unrelated leftovers from the fridge or leafing through family picture albums.
