Finally a horror movie again that dares to be different. Not that it makes this movie a great one but it's one that's definitely worth watching.
This is a very interesting and original sounding movie, also especially when looking at the cast. Elijah Wood is a maniacal serial killer? Sure, he played one before in "Sin City" but never as a leading man, in a full length movie. That alone should be plenty of reason to get people's curiosity. Yet, the movie never got a big release anywhere, which should set off a few alarm bells.
It's really not a bad movie but it also isn't one that totally succeeds at what it's trying to achieve. I even believe that a lot of horror lovers will end up feeling disappointed with this movie. It's trying to be a lot of different things, all at once. It's obvious to me that director Franck Khalfoun is a huge horror buff but that clearly doesn't mean that that enables you to make a great and effective genre movie as well.
It's a movie that attempts to recreate the feeling of a good old fashioned giallo movie, from the '70's, or rather said some of the later movies that were inspired by Italian giallos. For this movie itself is far from a giallo really. One of the biggest difference is that we know who the killer is, since the entire movie is told from his point of view. Literally! This entire movie is shot in the point of view of the Elijah Wood character, with only the exception of a handful of shots. So it puts us in his head but not really in his mind though, which is one of the problems with the movie. It's a big problem that the main character isn't a sympathetic one. You should always be able to like and relate to the movie its protagonist, on at least some levels but that's just never the case with the Elijah Wood character in this. Similair type of genre movies such as "Peeping Tom" and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" still made us sort of sympathize with the main character and murderer because we got to understand and truly know them. We knew what made them thick and ultimately we also wanted them to end up alright but let me just tell you that I couldn't care less what would happen to the Elijah Wood character in this. I'm not blaming Elijah Wood for this but simply the writing and directing approach instead. The movie is constantly far too busy trying to impress and shock with its next graphic kill but it forgets all about its actual story and characters. There really was plenty of potential in this movie but only about half of it gets used.
And the fact that this movie is completely shot as a point of view movie...it ultimately really doesn't add all that much to its way of storytelling or tension of the movie. It even begins to feel a bit too gimmicky after a while.
The movie soon starts to turn into a very repetitive one, as it's basically all about Elijah Wood finding his next kill. The movie feels too shallow with all of its developments and emotions and besides too often too predictable as well. It seems to believe that the way to captivate its viewers is by being as bloody and shocking as possible. And I do admit, the gore is pretty good to watch but it's not enough to make this a must-see movie as well, or one that's going to please the most hardened horror lovers out there.
It's not a bad attempt and still a quite good movie to watch at parts but it's far from an entirely effective or successful movie.
6/10
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