A Loteria

By all means, read Shirley Jackson's original short story; it gets down to business without the padding this film adds to it.

To all who think that the ending is sick and pointless, that was Ms. Jackson's intention exactly -- the original story is an allegory about the cruelty man inflicts upon his neighbor in the name of upholding "tradition". Ms. Jackson's story is much more affecting than this film.

This film is based on the disturbing short story by Shirley Jackson; I was horrified by the short story and as I was watching it the story seemed familiar. It does a great job depicting the atmosphere of the creepy small town, and accomplishes its main goals, which I think are to tell Jackson's story with a modern twist and scare the audience, make them think. It's definitely a different kind of horror film, one that makes you wonder and search your mind for answers to why they did what they did.

I had never read Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" or seen any filmed versions of it before I saw this one. Although it is a well-made and well-acted TV-movie of a fine, suspenseful story, I was a bit disappointed. To the film's credit, it doesn't overdo the characterization of the small-town residents as unspeakably weird oddballs, but the story holds on to its secret for so long that the film doesn't even begin to get ominous until it's over halfway through. The ending provides a pretty good payoff if you stick with it, though.

This spooky, intelligent television horror movie moves at a good steady pace, building towards its nightmarish climax, with a perfectly achieved sinister small town atmosphere. A clearer explanation of why the townsfolk do what they do would help, but the acting and writing keep you interested throughout. It's a classy excursion into horror from the writer that gave us "The Haunting".

Considering I had not even heard of 'The Lottery' prior to seeing it on Pay TV, this was a pleasant surprise (although perhaps the word 'pleasant' shouldn't be used in this context). Part of it's success is the casting of Dan Cortese as the lead, Jason. I first saw Dan Cortese as "Hunky Tony" in "The Stall"-Episode 73 on "Seinfeld" and whilst humourous in that situation, he adapted well for this movie. Keri Russell ("Felicity") was also a bonus. The plot was an inventive one, with the title of the film becoming all to clear as the movie develops. Although not a slash em up type horror movie, the suspense builds with Jason seeming to be caught in some type of time-culture warp. There is one particular scene which is extremely difficult to watch, without blood necessarily being spilt. Overall, I enjoyed this movie, particularly as I had no preconceptions on its content.