Claustrophobia

Having enjoyed writer/director Mark Tapio Kines's debut film FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS, I was ready for something in the same vein -- haunting, sardonic, even lyrical. Fortunately these qualities are evident enough in CLAUSTROPHOBIA to confirm that it's the same creative mind at work. What the film truly delivers, however, is pure and simple paranoia -- an intelligent and very creepy thriller that inventively plays with genre conventions. All of the basic ingredients are there: a house with three cute young women trapped inside (Mary Lynn Raskjub is the most watchable for my money), a faceless killer with a signature weapon, a couple of unfortunate bystanders. It's what Kines does with the material that gives the movie its hard edge. The action plays out in real time, in the suburban neighborhood next door, and -- a counter-intuitive but surprisingly effective move -- almost entirely in daylight. The pacing favors slow terror over shocks, remorselessly closing the walls in around the characters (hence the title). There are no "rules" governing who lives or dies: as in real life, the violence is jagged, haphazard, and mutely disturbing. The surprise ending is a "banality of evil" twist worthy of Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT or Terence Malick's BADLANDS. Altogether a fine journeyman outing from a filmmaker who gives spooky detachment a good name.

I visited Los Angeles recently and saw this movie when my buddy invited me to a hollywood premiere. I wouldn't have commented on it if not for the grossly misleading review on this page which was obviously written by someone responsible for the "film". I was horrified within minutes... and confused. I couldn't understand why something that looked like it was directed by my 12 year old brother was being played in an actual movie theatre. But, I kept watching and gave it a chance. I still regret that decision. The ensuing story and dialogue were so unclear and boring that I was hoping someone would shoot me with an arrow... one through each eye... hopefully killing me. Shockingly, this "horror" movie about girls trapped in a house by an unseen mass murderer takes place in the middle of the day in a suburban residential area. There is no suspense, no tension, no horror, no movie.

There is no word terrible enough to describe this movie. Every single solitary aspect of it was pitiful and completely senseless. The acting was of the worst of I've ever seen, the directing was the official worst I've seen and don't even get me started on the script writers. On the cover of the DVD case I got out I read one review that said "The best straight to video movie of the year" well for the sake of movie lovers everywhere I severely, severely hope this was not the case. I mean you can't tell me NONE of these obviously middle class, decent job occupying, love to talk women have a cell phone. I honestly reckon I could sit here for around 3 hours typing up problems with this movie movie but I won't bother because it wasn't worth it. All I'll say is please, please for future movies sake DO NOT GET THIS FILM OUT!!!

I've seen some bad movies in my life time, but this movie is one of the worst. What surprises me the the most is that it got distributed outside USA. You can clearly see that this movie is made by amateurs, first of all the lighting is really bad, at one point you can't even see the person being film because the sun whites out the camera. The acting is bad, the dialogs are boring, and scenes are drawn out to make the movie longer (at least so it seems) Another thing is the sound effects. the plot in the movie spins around a serial killer going after three girls in a house. Most of the time the killer is on the roof. This results in footsteps on the roof.. But the footsteps sounds SO wrong. It actually sounds like someone walking on dry snow, only there is no snow. There are some good things about the movie though. Sheeri Rappaport who plays Gina actually plays a credible character, and at the end of the movie they manage to make it a bit scary, and for a minute your not sure how it's gonna end.

It's great that new directors get to make movies, and i understand that these guys have a limited supply of money. But distributing this around the world is ripping people off. Luckily i didn't have to pay to see it.

The script was good, a lot of the photography was good, but the lighting was abysmal. There was no effort to correct the differences in exposure between interior and exterior. The acting was a little mannered. I assume that the movie was shot digitally. The editing was very effective in some sequences and less than good in others. It almost seemed that the editor occasionally got bored and quit trying. If I seem overly critical, let me hasten to add that the movie had more good qualities than bad. However, the bottom line word is "amateurish." It really wasn't worth the hassle of driving to Culver City and shelling out five bucks.