This little doozy makes me wish the videocamera had never been invented. But I'll say this for Bradley Stryker. He knows how to get his vacations paid for. This shot-on-video dreck is 98% amateur travel footage -- the kind of home movie a proud 1950s camera-owning suburbanite might have forced his friends and neighbors to sit through -- with 2% "horror" slapped on in order to market it to suckers.
If you're expecting another "Hostel" (or anything close to it) get that thought out of your head. This is more like a PG-rated travel video shot by Uwe Boll.
The "scary" stuff features a threatening clown-masked villain with a filtered voice -- to say he's a poor man's version of Jigsaw from Saw would be an insult to poor men. The rest of this video venture is footage of the actors dancing at raves, wandering the streets or lounging on the beaches of Thailand.
I'm embarrassed to say I fell for the ruse -- I kept watching, waiting for something of substance to develop. It was like watching a house slowly burn, waiting for the walls to give way and the roof to finally collapse. There are a few pretty actresses but don't expect much if you're looking for T'n'A, and you'll still be disappointed.
The ending is predictable and entirely anti-climactic. Writer-director Stryker hasn't a clue how to build suspense or tell a proper story. The videography is nice, taking advantage of the plethora of dayglo backdrops and lush beauty of the country, like any competent travel piece would.
Adding to the torture is the music. Stryker managed to dig up some of the most annoying songs ever recorded for this opus. The two at the end are particularly heinous, one meant to be ironic (Baby Girl) and the other a children's bubblegum ditty called Boom Boom something-or-other that cannot be adequately described with mere words.
Perhaps the worst thing of all is the end credit sequence, which takes us to a new location. Obviously our Aussie auteur has plans for a sequel.
