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As is often the case, I find myself in the position of defending a bad movie. It's a role I'm comfortable with. I have no other choice, it would seem. Make no mistake, as I hinted at above, this is a bad movie. I think most of that blame can lay at the feet of Lindsay Lohan. That may seem convenient and harsh, but the simple fact of the matter is she is a disaster. A complete f*cking train-wreck. She is believable almost zero percent of the time. As has been pointed out by several reviewers here already, her hideous pole-dancing is all the evidence of her incompetence that you need. She is about as sexy there as oatmeal. In fact, the only scene in the movie where she connected with the material in any meaningful way was when she was f*cking. Coincidence? Probably not. And to tell you the truth, there are a few other actors in the film who are just as wooden as Lohan at her best, and chew just as much scenery as she does at her worst. So why the four stars? Good question. First and foremost, I am biased towards director Chris Siverston. I really liked his adaptation of Jack Ketchum's The Lost. While this is not his first movie, it is his first for a studio and with a "star." So while I watched it, I attributed what worked in the film to him, and what didn't to the aforementioned disaster, and the studio flexing muscle in terms of editing (it's an old story about directors with no clout having their films taken out of their hands and reedited). I also liked the gore quite a bit. Gore can work for a film or against it, and here I thought it was for. If for nothing else than it was unexpected. I figured this was going to be completely watered-down, and maybe they'd restore some grue for the director's cut. So imagine my surprise to see a block of dry ice c-clamped to someone's hand, the fingers necrosing and then being chopped off. Sweet. I also really, really liked how the lead female character didn't pull any horror movie bullsh*t at the end. When confronting the killer, she doesn't waste time. She takes any shots she can, as quickly and brutally as she can. That was a nice change of pace. There was one final thing that pushed it from three stars to four, but that will be discussed under the spoiler alert below. I will end the safe portion by saying that yes, the movie is heavily flawed, but if you look really closely, there are redeeming qualities (like the irreverent humor that Siverson threw in whenever he could - something I think will be his trademark, if he makes it past this muddled mess). SPOILER ALERT (because that's how I roll) I was very pleased with the supernatural twist. Most films of this nature hint at the supernatural, but then it ends up being something quite natural. This film takes the opposite approach, and I liked that. The reveal of the killer may seem like a deus ex machina, but that is because we are so accustomed to the red herring plot device in mysteries that we feel cheated when we don't get it. This film doesn't try to lead you by the nose to one place in an attempt to trick you. It just is what it is. email this review to a friend
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