Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

thor5894 There is a lot to admire here, mainly a great lead performance by Amy Seimetz as the alcoholic ex-girlfriend of a serial killer trying to re-establish a normal life. Also it's tough to pull off a naturalistic arthouse horror flick, and this attempt does better than most. For most of its running time this plays more as a drama (that happens to involve a serial killer) than as horror. But two elements nearly wreck the film. One, mentioned by many other reviews here, is the constant close-ups with a jerky handheld camera. A little of this would be fine but it never lets up, this movie is 87 minutes of random close-ups with a camera that won't hold still. It's too much and becomes a constant distraction. Second, there is a very ill-judged twist five minutes before the end that effectively undoes much of the naturalistic appeal the movie had until that point. I won't reveal it here, but will just say it was wholly unconvincing to me. Even with these serious flaws, I found this to be worth watching for Seimetz's performance and for the unhurried, reflective storytelling. What's good here will stay with me, which makes the misjudgments that much more frustrating.

ritera1 A textbook way to engineer a low-budget horror story without losing any of the tension and humanity. The use of music was a bit heavy-handed but did its job and covered for the lack of budget in creating more interesting visuals.Very slow, methodical and gritty. I could have used less of the bouncy camera, though. Both leads were original and well-acted. The killer's reluctance was somewhat evident throughout (but not enough) and clarified at the end with his monologue. But it was clarified at the end. Something more was needed to put his self-hatred into focus. Not reveal it all, but focus it much earlier. Thus, there was more to this story that was not explored.Now it was clearly stated that this killer had internet friends. So someone was going to give away her location from early on. That was giving away the store and should have been reigned in. But who?I'm surprised that it took me so long but I finally got it when the new boyfriend showed after the friend's murder. Maybe that was due to the good performance. After that it was waiting for the inevitable in 3 minutes. I didn't catch on that the work friends were in it, though. Then the killer shows up due to contact with one of the friends. I initially bought it and it was explained. But then I got to thinking'. Why didn't the killer alert the cops at the onset? Why didn't the killer make a bee-line to the woman if he was so concerned? Granted, the ending was done very well, but I had doubts about the timing as it took a couple weeks at least. Why did the phony boyfriend go through the relationship? (Could have been explained easily, but was not. They explained contacting the killer.) And why did the other two wait so long for the murder they wanted to commit? But good ending with the killer saving her and his monologue. Left me with an uneasy feeling on who to root for. And a very horrible feeling because she can never really trust again. I'd be curious what a sequel would look like.

Mark Vessey More of a thriller than it is a horror, although the suspense is straight out of any good horror flick. There's no joy to be found here in this grim, bleak and melancholic take on the serial killer genre with an excellent twist. The lead actors do such a fantastic job of making us care or loathe for these believable and well structured characters that it can be easy to forgive the film for its shortcomings in its questionable cinematography and irritating shooting style. The pacing is also excellent in giving equal parts character development and subtle plot points leading up to a fantastic finale with the previously mentioned unspeakable twist, although the ending is somewhat abrupt and unsatisfactory.

Richard_vmt This film deserves high marks for the all-important mood making. The integration of music and sound, infernal or merely funereal, and sometimes reaching up into the natural (police sirens) makes the presence of evil constantly there even when just driving along an empty road.The dementia in this film is not merely the efforts of a single mad man but the hellish world where abductions, torture, rape and murder are accepted. And it does this realistically.In this type of film there are always the moments of normalcy contrasted with the evil. But here, the only normalcy is in AA meetings which are themself like the reflective upward facing surface of Hell. This fills the whole film with a feeling of pity and despair.But the film has a fatal flaw. The plot is unfollowable. Also, owing to the dark nature of the exposure, it was not always easy to identify characters. This is further exasperated by the awkward use of flash back. So that while I saw the beautiful naked woman dead in the tub--and it was a disturbing image--I could not say whether it was the same woman in later scenes clothed and still alive--or whether it was a serial killing. I certainly had no bearings at all. The film shows promise but results are defective.