The Lottery

This is a good movie. throughout the whole movie you know something really weird is going to happen. There's just this feeling. Unbelievable ending. If you get a chance, watch it.

Being an English teacher, my students read the Shirley Jackson short story. I thought this was a good updated, adaptation of the story. Since it was a made for tv movie, I knew that it would not be too gruesome. I don't know that I would classify this as true horror, maybe more like mystery.

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".

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.