Nailbiter

Nailbiter was better than I expected. These days a lot of low-budget horror movies have been disappointing. So, it was nice that this came along and did something a little different.

The plot involves a mother and her three daughters living in Kansas awaiting the return of of the father. They are going to meet the him at the airport when they get sidetracked by a tornado. They find the nearest house and, unable to get inside, hide in the cellar. This turns out to be a huge mistake as the family upstairs is connected to a group of carnivorous monsters that tend to get riled up during storms.

One thing that was special about this was the plot didn't advance in quite the way I expected it to. I thought for sure they weren't going to harm these girls, but I was very wrong. There isn't a lot of on- screen violence but what's there is enough to create tension.

The acting was pretty strong, if a little spotty, good for a low-budget horror anyway. A few of the performances do stand out, especially the Sheriff and the oldest daughter. The music was robust and does a good job of setting a tone and providing cues. The monster make-up is good but underused. I don't think you ever really get a good look at a whole one. Although there are a couple nice scenes where you get close ups of their faces.

Lastly, The film sets itself up for a sequel and given the context I would very much like to see it. This has a solid premise and a bigger budget and some more action would suit it nicely I think.

Damn it is hard at times to write a review for a great film, and I find it even harder to write one for this awful awful film. It sort of sounded OK, but it took all about 10 minutes work out where this one was going to.

The music score is terrible, the so called special affect would have cut it 50 years ago, but it is 2012 after all, and damn I expect more from films these days then this rubbish.

I think the story it self is not bad, but the acting is as wooden as a plank! and it just feels wrong, cheap came to mind, but thats even a complement! So to sum it up, unless you have nothing better to do, damn no, don't waste your time on this, life is just to short! A very very solid 1 out of 10

Wow. There's bad acting........and then there's this...

I read another review where they said "really well acted" It's not possible that we're watching the same movie.

In all honesty, this is, hands down, the worst attempt at film making I have ever had the extreme displeasure of suffering through. At the 38-minute mark I turned off my TV......I've never done that before.....that should tell you just how horrendous this movie is.

On the bright side? Well, I now have a benchmark from which all really, really bad movies can be compared.

I am wondering if this was the Director's first attempt? And the cast, writers and producers' first venture into cinema? If so, they get a mulligan.........if not, then they need to make it their last venture into cinema.

This movie is about a mother (Alice Maguire) and her three daughters who are trying to get to the airport to pick up Mr Maguire, the daughter's father. But on the way there is a tornado warning and the trip starts to get too dangerous so they stop on the highway and run to a house to take shelter. Nobody answers the door so they all get in to the cellar to wait out the storm. But then they discover that there is somebody in the house above them, and then they become trapped in the cellar. But there's more to worry about than the impending storm, and their lives become endangered, by something that's not normal.

What can I say? The acting was terrible, the script was cringe-worthy, and the plot is very overused; people trapped in a small area, getting bothered by some unusual presence. I think it could have been okay, but the way it was presented just made it very boring. There were no scary moments, which can be fine if the movie has an interesting plot that will keep you entertained without being scared every 10 minutes, but there was nothing. Nothing that intrigued me to keep watching, or put me on the edge of my seat, or made me want to see a sequel. In my opinion it was just a very,very badly produced movie.

This film wasn't bad, but wasn't that good, either. Just average. On a story level, it was pretty good. It slowly drew me in, built suspense, and led up to an interesting idea. The problems were on a more technical level. The female leads often muttered their lines, making me have to turn up the volume and strain my ears to understand their dialog. Two of the villainous characters were played stiffly, with almost no personality. The film was limited in what it showed in gore, action and special effects, probably because of a limited budget. I wanted to like this film (I did enjoy parts of it), but for me its flaws marginally outweighed its strengths.