Bryan Bertino needs to put his ego aside and go back to film school to learn how to make a watchable movie. Since this comes across as a movie a novice film school student might make, here are some hints for him:
* The shaky camera technique used throughout the movie becomes annoying after a point. It worked for "Blair Witch Project", but has never worked since. It doesn't make any movie more suspenseful or scary, unless used sparingly. Using it this much shows a lack of creativity on the part of the writer/director. It's also obvious that not all the shots are done with the cameras the characters are given. It is a very sloppy use of the "found footage" technique, which has already gotten old, and should be abandoned by any capable writer or director.
* The lighting flashing from dark to bright used throughout the movie becomes annoying after a point. It doesn't make any movie more suspenseful or scary, unless used sparingly. Using it this much shows a lack of creativity on the part of the writer/director. That's especially true since there is no realistic reason for the relatively constant rapid changes from darkness to light in large parts of the film.
* Having all the characters react in unrealistic ways does not become more believable by covering them up with shaky camera movements and flashing lights.
* Long, drawn out shots that add nothing to the plot drag a movie down. Using them this much shows a lack of creativity on the part of the writer/director. But I guess he had to turn what could have been a possibly decent short film into an hour and 22 minutes feature somehow.
* A movie needs to have some context, some cohesiveness that draws the viewer in. That is completely lacking here, all the way through. I don't look for realism or a complete lack of plot holes (and there are plenty here) in a B horror movie, but I would like some logic in its progression. There is none here.
The above makes any experienced viewer lose interest before the 1-hour mark. I only stuck it out because the movie is thankfully short.
Then there is the final scene, which is drawn out painfully long (again, probably to pad the movie), and ends with a ridiculous payoff. The inexplicable makeup and utter lack of believability that the characters that pulled off this "prank" could have done so further ruins what is already a very bad movie. I even "get" the ending, which I guess was supposed to surprise me. But no. It only added to how badly written and executed the film was.
How Bertino managed to get a major studio to back this mess with somewhat good production values and a large crew is a mystery. The fact that it went directly to disk (ones that are being sold dirt cheap) is not a mystery. It is disappointing, though, that a film like this gets to disk while so many older and recent much better movies never do.
I am amazed at the few positive reviews I see here for this mess. Since the one guy misspells "style" in his title, it makes me think that only young viewers that haven't seen very many horror movies, or movies in general, could enjoy this.
