hellholehorror

I was a bit disappointed by this film. It's quite a strange experience. It's a pretty dull and generic slasher movie with some mildly interesting derivative moments. The special effects are very cheesy. The characters are fairly memorable with mostly good acting. I didn't like Mitch Pileggi though, he was over-acting and not in a good way, director Wes Craven is probably partially to blame for that. It's simply not a good film, one of Craven's worst although not as bad as The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984). The flight choreography, cinematography and direction are all pretty weak. They don't have enough story, it's very much rinse and repeat. The film cannot fill the runtime. A serial killer jumps into different bodies and tries to kill the person that caught him. That's it. Not worth the effort you put into finding and watching it.

What struck me first was that this film is surprisingly funny and more entertaining than I was expecting. The characters are great except Harriet who I found a little annoying but only a little. There is not too much ghost action until the climax so it can be a little slow. Actually the middle act is pretty dull and doesn't add much of anything to the film. The ending is pretty cool and fun. It is not very scary so more of a light comedy with ghosts than a family horror. None of the peril feels dangerous or scary, it just seems to lack urgency. Overall it's entertaining but forgettable, I'd rather be on the ride. Oh and there is so much product placement and it is painfully forced in.

This film wasn't as gory as I would have expected for the story. The day-for-night stuff looked a bit strange but I guess that it worked. I liked the cinematography as it was relatively minimalistic. Some of the music came in a bit awkwardly but overall it was pretty good sound. It was all pretty convincing. The story was a little confusing in places but the pace never died. I'm not a big fan of flashbacks but it kept the film moving. You were never far from some murder death kill. I thought that too many people loved each other but I guess that is true of school kids anyway so that gripe can be ignored. It's a pretty good film with some teenage drama that I didn't understand but the violence helped that gripe.