Badmovies.org Forum

I rarely go see horror movies at the theater; my wife can't stand them and honest, I don't get out to the movies that often anyway - I am a rental junkie and have been for years.   But when I saw the trailers for this one last fall I was tempted!  It came out on video this week and I rented it yesterday; this morning my daughters and I watched it.

All I can say is HOLY COW!
This is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen!  Ethan Hawk is brilliant as Ellison Oswalt, a washed-up
true crime writer who had one hit novel, then two flops.  He is desperately trying to rekindle a failed career,
so he moves his family to a community where a horrific, unsolved murder and missing child case have left
the locals stunned and puzzled.  But - here is the kicker - without telling his wife, he moves the family INTO
the actual home where the victims lived!

Not long after, he finds a box of 8mm films in the basement.  When he puts the first one on, he sees to his shock
that it is the actual video of the family's murder, filmed by parties unknown!  But then, as he plays the others, he
sees that they, too, are all videos of families being murdered by different means - and in each case, as he investigates
he finds that one of the families children disappeared the night the rest were killed.   And, as he carefully examines
the movies, he finds a bizarre face in each video . . . the same face.

How are they related?  Who is the killer?  Is he human?  And is he now after the Oswalt family?

Man, this was EXCELLENT!  I am a veteran horror movie fan, and I still loved it.  My daughters are both 18
and they literally screamed at the final jump scare!  After a long dry run, horror film makers are finally
beginning to turn out creepy original films again.

This one is HIGHLY recommended! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Indy, I normally love your recommendations, but I'm going to have to pass on this one.  If it's as good as you say, it means it will scare the bejeezus out of me and I will have nightmares about it.  Seriously.  I'm fascinated by the trailer and it looks really good, but I am wary of what it will do to my little mind!

Totally agree!   :thumbup:

Turn off the lights when you watch this one to get some seriously sinister vibes.  The eerie music really helped set the tone.  It's almost surrealistic in parts.  There's a couple of BOO! scares but they're good ones.   :wink: 

5/5

Okay you got me interested, I'll have to make a point of checking it out when the used DVD's get down to a couple of bucks or so.   :teddyr:

As I mentioned in my topic on this, its rare that a big-budget horror film is genuinely scary; this is one rare example.

Frankly, it's the only reason I haven't boycotted Hollywood horror altogether.