First of all the plot is totally unbelievable by 1/3 of the way through. The plot is very shallow especially with back story and character development. It is very hard to have any sympathy with the undeveloped vapid characters. The acting was very jilted and contrived, especially the role of Val Kilmer. It was as if Val was forced to do a movie for some reason and gave his bare minimum.
I think in this 21st century the idea of the helpless unresourceful female character is outdated. In fact the reactions of all four characters who are hunting for the whereabouts of the missing brother is so overdone in hundreds of "horror" movies before that it is an offensive to the viewer. They follow the very typical method of operation that so many horror, slasher, teenage movie flicks follow. separate and get picked off one by one. then when confronting the bad guy in the movie one of the male characters makes all the wrong mistakes that we come to expect and as easily predicted he dies. What a big shocker there. And the obvious blaring misconception is the cover on the video, a giant question mark with an MC Escher like illustration. At no time did this theme in anyway relate to the film. What could have been a mind bending psychological thriller turned out to be worse than some film student's senior project. I did give it one star because there was a happy ending and one cannot turn down a happy ending.
I think in this 21st century the idea of the helpless unresourceful female character is outdated. In fact the reactions of all four characters who are hunting for the whereabouts of the missing brother is so overdone in hundreds of "horror" movies before that it is an offensive to the viewer. They follow the very typical method of operation that so many horror, slasher, teenage movie flicks follow. separate and get picked off one by one. then when confronting the bad guy in the movie one of the male characters makes all the wrong mistakes that we come to expect and as easily predicted he dies. What a big shocker there. And the obvious blaring misconception is the cover on the video, a giant question mark with an MC Escher like illustration. At no time did this theme in anyway relate to the film. What could have been a mind bending psychological thriller turned out to be worse than some film student's senior project. I did give it one star because there was a happy ending and one cannot turn down a happy ending.