ghosttown-02853

Where do I begin with a film like this? Let's start with the Pros:

• There is solid cinematography on display here, far better quality than this film deserves.

• That's about it.

Now for the Cons:

• First off, this film has some of the worst writing I've seen this side of a Neil Breen film. Characters say what they're thinking with almost no subtext whatsoever. Weird attempts at humor pop up out of nowhere and make the scenes feel like a series of loosely connected SNL skits. Subplots are brought up and then either dropped immediately, or ham-fistedly woven back into the script at the last second. It honestly seemed as though the writer/director had a handful of different films he wanted to make and rather than choose the best out of the bunch, he just decided to throw them all together into one stupid gumbo of a movie.

• Secondly, the acting is mostly community theater level bad. KateLynn Newberry gives probably the best performance of the lot, but the bar is so low here, that's not saying much. The lead and the sheriff are both quite wooden and their subplot mostly amounts to nothing.

• The creature effects are pretty forgettable. You can really tell there was a limited budget here. Everyone else seems to rave about the practical effects, but there was really nothing special about them. And aside from a limb getting amputated in the first five minutes, there's very little in the way of bloodshed, considering this is supposed to be a horror/thriller film.

• Jumping back to the Neil Breen comparison, this film -- like Breen's -- has a lot it wants to say about justice and morality, but it doesn't know how or when to say it. In fact, like many bad movie before it, 'Replicator' seems to preach the same tired sermon of "bad people are bad" and "elected officials are corrupt, but they really shouldn't be." It's cheap, uninspired, childish writing and there's really no excuse for it.

Bottom line: This is a terrible, awkwardly paced and utterly forgettable film with high school level writing, zero heart, bad acting, awkward staging, budget effects, and a central idea that just doesn't work. With the exception of some good looking cinematography, this film flounders in every possible way.

While some films are so bad, they're good, this film is so bad that it's just bad.

Save your money and watch a Breen film instead. At least it'll be entertaining.