After being forced back home to her parents' house, a troubled teen finds her life turned upside down when her babysitting charge falls prey to a vicious serial killer dressed as an ice-cream vendor and must find a way of catching him to stop his rampage.
For the most part this one here wasn't all that impressive of a horror film. Most of the film's problems stem from the utterly bland and lifeless pace throughout the first half to this one, opting far more for a Drama feel than a terrifying feel. There's a lot of talk about how her life is falling apart with the break-up and returning back to live with them and the strange encounters with the ice-cream seller all tend to get featured so heavily that there's no chance for it to develop into a rather chilling story. Though it comes off a little better with the abduction angle, even still it's not so much about that as it is about the tragedy of the situation which takes center stage over the proceedings, and there's not a whole lot of action brought up by this in the meantime. Other factors here with the films' rather bland and lifeless pace are all stemming from the lack of a body count that don't offer up anything that makes for a more horror-based effort by detailing the lengths they go to with the investigation and keeping it away from the stalking they carry through together where they gradually come to believe the identity of the killer, the factor of not even getting anything remotely close to stalking or kills with the holding hostage angle that he employs against her while the the lazy search carries on to make this one feel quite bland overall. Likewise, without the body count there's very little to fear here about the killer who's quite lame in terms of being physically unscary but also with how their interactions have very little to generate any kind of actual fear with what happens. It all makes for a wholly disappointing experience overall with quite a few flaws holding this one down. There's only a few small areas that work with this one, from the actual concept here that concerns him targeting her and how he comes to the family which is quite chilling and more than appropriate in how to build that kind of story. Several of the later scenes here from how he has her trapped and kept at the house are pretty chilling as her continual escape attempts are the only part of this one that really gets any kind of action involved throughout here along with the strong final confrontation also getting some action involved as well. Otherwise, this one is more flawed than anything.
Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence and intense themes of children- in-jeopardy.
