My advice can only be please read as many reviews as possible before deciding to watch this movie. I had just recently rented 'The Resident' (Hilary Swank) but returned it without watching it on the basis of a few IMDb negative reviews. I then rented the Needle on the basis of a series of positive reviews (IMDB). This was a mistake. In my opinion at least, the film appeared to go to lengths to give the impression it was a quality production, whilst there were just too many flaws to bear this out / sustain interest. The acting seemed a little wooden, the actors themselves appearing a little inhibited / self conscious...conscious that they were indeed acting, the scenes having a kind of 'reality show' feel about them. As mentioned earlier, the array of accents was confusing. I watched it for about 15 minutes. Seemingly out of context, an isolated 'f' word made it's debut. It really seemed incongruous, as though its use was requested to substantiate the young, student centred horror genre the film was appealing to. (watched 'Devil' recently - apart from how one may judge the film, so refreshing to get away from this word, even temporarily).
In any case, there seemed to be no sense of build up of suspense or expectation. The scenes didn't seem to build on one another through a common thread of direction or focus - seemed a little like a concoction of events (student defiance of teachers - ie in lecture hall, parties / relationships,etc) were thrown in to convince us that these were indeed compulsory elements of any teen based horror movie. However, these, as again mentioned earlier, seemed only to detract from any developing theme.
After a while, I could say, well this has happened, and that just happened and that guy just suffered a horrible death etc etc ...so why aren't I interested in what's coming up next? Perhaps I could have given the movie more time, but the movie just wasn't working, for me at least.
In any case, there seemed to be no sense of build up of suspense or expectation. The scenes didn't seem to build on one another through a common thread of direction or focus - seemed a little like a concoction of events (student defiance of teachers - ie in lecture hall, parties / relationships,etc) were thrown in to convince us that these were indeed compulsory elements of any teen based horror movie. However, these, as again mentioned earlier, seemed only to detract from any developing theme.
After a while, I could say, well this has happened, and that just happened and that guy just suffered a horrible death etc etc ...so why aren't I interested in what's coming up next? Perhaps I could have given the movie more time, but the movie just wasn't working, for me at least.