Nailbiter

I was expecting a lot from NAILBITER after the first five minutes. After all, in those five minutes I found out it was a well-shot and initially engaging film, one that took the time to develop character and situation unlike so many these days. I was hoping for something better than the usual run-of-the-mill horror guff.

Unfortunately after just a handful of minutes NAILBITER gets significantly worse when the main characters find themselves holed up in a cellar to escape from an approaching tornado. After this point, they're trapped in the cellar FOR THE ENTIRE RUNNING TIME. In the dark. There's a mutant monster on the loose, yes, but he's barely glimpsed and seems incidental to the main storyline, which is just about those women sitting around in the cellar and complaining. Of course, there's time for a ridiculously over the top ending along the way.

The film is very underwhelming for the genre. None of the cast are familiar and none of them give very good performances; none of the protagonists are likable either. Bloodshed is kept to a minimum, and the horror itself is limited to those dumb jump scares that work for very few people these days. In other words, there's virtually no reason to watch this.

First time reviewer, but this was a tragedy that called itself a movie, and more than enough inspiration for me to sign in and write. Name a component of film-making and this atrocity cussed it out and b*tch- slapped it in the face.

I adore horror. Even the most avid horror fan would be shocked at the dogs I have sat through and thought were OK. Don't get me wrong; there are other movies I would rate a "1" and feel was on par with this one, but something about this particular piece of crap just insulted me. Maybe it was the acting, particularly Erin McGrone's. She made me want to punch someone in then face and cry. There's something desperately wrong when the kids' acting is far superior to the adults'. Then there was the script writing, which was probably done by two drunk orangutans.

I guess the part that pushed me over the cliff was that the concept was actually a GOOD IDEA. I wish Eli Roth had somehow been involved in the production, due to the mix of natural disaster and horror (a la Aftershock.) I hate to see ideas with potential go to sore waste. If it's this bad, it should be a standard one-aspect movie.

A waste of precious time on earth.

This film wasn't bad, but wasn't that good, either. Just average. On a story level, it was pretty good. It slowly drew me in, built suspense, and led up to an interesting idea. The problems were on a more technical level. The female leads often muttered their lines, making me have to turn up the volume and strain my ears to understand their dialog. Two of the villainous characters were played stiffly, with almost no personality. The film was limited in what it showed in gore, action and special effects, probably because of a limited budget. I wanted to like this film (I did enjoy parts of it), but for me its flaws marginally outweighed its strengths.

"Nailbiter", despite its somewhat cheesy title, was actually quite good. The movie is listed as horror, but just don't expect to be scared out of your seat. "Nailbiter" is more of a thriller, the kind that creeps under your skin and leaves you wondering.

The story is about a mom and her three daughters driving towards Kansas city where they are to be reunited with their returning husband and father coming back from military service overseas. But a massive tornado is ravaging the state, and the women get waylaid on their way, having to seek shelter in the cellar of an apparently empty house. As the storm rages, the women find that they are by all means not alone, trapped in the cellar with something beastly stalking outside.

I enjoyed the story, even though it was far from scary. But the story managed to lure me in and keep me wanting to see what happened next. The director, Patrick Rea, was really good at building up suspense and letting the movie progress in a way that let us slowly in on the events, piece by piece. It worked out so well, and I found myself to be thoroughly entertained throughout the entire movie.

Acting-wise, then "Nailbiter" was good as well, there was a relatively small cast to the movie, but they all did really good jobs with their roles, especially Ben Jeffrey (playing officer Carr) he was really great.

"Nailbiter" had a really great atmosphere to it, and the sense of dread and claustrophobia in the cellar with something unknown lurking outside was just such a nice touch. They managed to pull that off quite nicely.

If you enjoy scary movies, horror movies, thrillers, etc. then you definitely should give "Nailbiter" a chance, it might just grow on you. Despite being overly scary, "Nailbiter" does manage to impress and get under your skin. It is a movie that leaves you wondering what was just exactly happening there in Wellsville.

Damn it is hard at times to write a review for a great film, and I find it even harder to write one for this awful awful film. It sort of sounded OK, but it took all about 10 minutes work out where this one was going to.

The music score is terrible, the so called special affect would have cut it 50 years ago, but it is 2012 after all, and damn I expect more from films these days then this rubbish.

I think the story it self is not bad, but the acting is as wooden as a plank! and it just feels wrong, cheap came to mind, but thats even a complement! So to sum it up, unless you have nothing better to do, damn no, don't waste your time on this, life is just to short! A very very solid 1 out of 10