The people producing this film fell for the same fallacy that one of the students in the class did. He insisted that a couple of the stories he wrote in the vein of, "I realized that such-and-such is a true because this happened." He insisted that the story didn't need modification simply because it was true. Problem was, he forgot about a few things like effective story telling and sticking with just the significant facts. And the need to embellish a little is always a good thing.
This film suffers from the same problems. The back of the DVD says that the plot is all the more chilling because it is real. Well, being real is not scary. Most good horror films are scary because they are real. And if based on real life, they are scary because they are well-written and directed to convey a mood where even if you know the real story, you are unsure what will happen next and fear for the characters.
The biggest problem with the story telling is that the story of the clan begins at the end of the journey--with the kids being arrested in New Orleans for the murder of a Eustis, FL couple. THEN they all sit down one-by-one and tell the tale of how they got to be in 'Nawlins. The problem is, at this point we already know what is going to happen: parents get killed and kids get arrested in New Orleans! End of plot! Somehow the actual traveling seemed to take up a big portion of the run time but we already know where they are headed before they even take the trip.
The film has some good, young talent in the supporting roles (there is no real lead except for the one daughter of the parents who are murdered who goes on the journey). For some reason, all the young actors seemed to out-shine the older ones (especially the laughably bad-acting police officers). The casting of these roles was right on cue. Most people look like they did in real life except for the Rod character, who if you look him up on the Florida Dept. of Corrections site does NOT look like a hearthrob like he was in this movie. The kid with the glasses was eerily doppleganger-like.
The very opening of the movie is very reminiscent of Scream 1's opening scene with a girl realizing she may not be alone while talking on the phone. The shot setups look alike too. The bad-acting cop who shows up and tries to be the scare-factor in the scene makes the film more of a comedy than a thriller.
There is some decent amount of blood in the film. The killing of the parents is on-camera but out of frame (not necessarily a bad thing). We do get to see some bloodied, bludgeoned bodies which is always good (I think). The music is pretty fitting as well but it is cranked up too high at parts and you can't hear parts of the dialogue. And that is not because it is diagetic music.
Like the whole arrest at the beginning of the movie, putting off the murders for as long as the creators did makes it far less dramatic. The kids actually flash back to the murder scene but skip showing it on camera until the end. Why?! There's no revelation. It's just pointless to add it at the point and not put it in chronologically.
In the end, the writing is the biggest thing keeping this film down. Some B-grade actors as cops and complete lack of suspense build-up in direction doesn't help either. 3/10
