I really wasn't too impressed by this horror movie, though it was still likable enough, for not taking any of the obvious directions with its story.
It all begins as a normal horror movie, with teenagers in the main lead. It really doesn't have much originality to it and the movie 'borrows' its elements heavily from other genre movies. Yet the movie manages to not become the standard average horror movie that we've seen so often this modern day and time. The movie is less exploitation like than normal horror flicks and it doesn't feed on its scare or gory moments. The approach works rather original but of course it also makes the movie less exciting and takes away lot of the tension of it all. So its strongest point also becomes a weak point for this movie.
Guess that most horror fans will still be disappointed with this movie overall. The movie just doesn't handle its horror elements very well and the movie made me think about how director Victor Salva just doesn't seem suitable enough for the genre. It had a rather good and potential scary premise and it does have a good killer in it but it just doesn't know how to handle it right. The killer, or monster as you will, gets featured quite a lot and is shown fully on screen, which just makes him less scary after a while. Also its story doesn't help much to make him a real good scary horror character. It's pretty silly how he lets the two main characters live throughout the movie, despite his obvious superior physical skills. He could had killed them at basically every given moment throughout the movie, without them ever knowing what hit them.
It's atmosphere is also constantly too dark, at least during its second halve. I'm sure I would had liked the movie much better if it was more like its first halve, that was still mostly mysterious and you didn't knew what was going on or who was the person behind all of this and why. Besides the movie was light as well back then, so I could see better what was going on all as well.
Can't really say that I can recommend it to the lovers of the genre but it's still being original and likable enough in parts to still consider this a watchable movie.
6/10
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