So, the summary goes like this. Young girl is struggling watching her life's dreams fade away, as she cares for the autistic brother left to her by a mother who commit suicide. They have been left in the care of an evil stepfather who has just plundered said heroine's college savings to buy a tiger for his new safari ranch. Naturally, he does this the day a hurricane is coming, conveniently setting up a scenario where our two young victims are trapped in a house with a hungry tiger.
Despite the ludicrousness of the plot, I thought I'd give this a chance based on many solid reviews I have seen on my favorite horror sites, figuring if they can build the tension well enough it's no sillier a plot than many other horror movies.
The first half of this film is buildup and character development with no real action taking place. While this is fine in and of itself and I have no problem with slow burn, or character development, the problem here is an overload of melodramatic family problems and hackneyed plot devices. Let's see, mom has commit suicide, leaving two children with an evil stepdad. One child is autistic (seemingly the trendy affliction of the time to pull a few heartstrings), leaving our heroine to feel responsible for his care, at the sacrifice of her own college goals. The dramatic touch-points just keep coming in the beginning. When the action finally starts to build, the clichés just keep coming. The setting is an oncoming hurricane, leading to our character's requisite trapping in their home. Naturally, the cell phone breaks so there's no communication. The car won't start on queue. The girl is the single worst close range pistol aim you'll ever see. Of course, she does find a way to get soaking wet in a white t-shirt since the director clearly felt he was missing any T&A to check off the horror rules list.
So okay, it's a direct to video thriller with a clearly out there premise, so maybe I'm being a little harsh? Was I expecting an Oscar winner? No, of course not, but I do expect creativity. Were there moments of tension? Yes, but every one of them telegraphed so far ahead of time that I was, literally, writing the script in my head as the action went on. Too bad Vegas doesn't take bets on movie plots, because I would have made a fortune by predicting the ending exactly as it happened about halfway through the film.
I will give it credit for the effects. This could have been horrible SyFy quality crap with laptop level CGI, but instead they went for practical effects with a real tiger and I did appreciate the director for taking that approach. I found myself at times amazed more for the tiger's "acting ability" and how well it was trained than for any action going on screen.
This movie certainly isn't a waste of your time and I've seen far worse DTV horror films, but it doesn't amount to the reviews I have seen either.
Despite the ludicrousness of the plot, I thought I'd give this a chance based on many solid reviews I have seen on my favorite horror sites, figuring if they can build the tension well enough it's no sillier a plot than many other horror movies.
The first half of this film is buildup and character development with no real action taking place. While this is fine in and of itself and I have no problem with slow burn, or character development, the problem here is an overload of melodramatic family problems and hackneyed plot devices. Let's see, mom has commit suicide, leaving two children with an evil stepdad. One child is autistic (seemingly the trendy affliction of the time to pull a few heartstrings), leaving our heroine to feel responsible for his care, at the sacrifice of her own college goals. The dramatic touch-points just keep coming in the beginning. When the action finally starts to build, the clichés just keep coming. The setting is an oncoming hurricane, leading to our character's requisite trapping in their home. Naturally, the cell phone breaks so there's no communication. The car won't start on queue. The girl is the single worst close range pistol aim you'll ever see. Of course, she does find a way to get soaking wet in a white t-shirt since the director clearly felt he was missing any T&A to check off the horror rules list.
So okay, it's a direct to video thriller with a clearly out there premise, so maybe I'm being a little harsh? Was I expecting an Oscar winner? No, of course not, but I do expect creativity. Were there moments of tension? Yes, but every one of them telegraphed so far ahead of time that I was, literally, writing the script in my head as the action went on. Too bad Vegas doesn't take bets on movie plots, because I would have made a fortune by predicting the ending exactly as it happened about halfway through the film.
I will give it credit for the effects. This could have been horrible SyFy quality crap with laptop level CGI, but instead they went for practical effects with a real tiger and I did appreciate the director for taking that approach. I found myself at times amazed more for the tiger's "acting ability" and how well it was trained than for any action going on screen.
This movie certainly isn't a waste of your time and I've seen far worse DTV horror films, but it doesn't amount to the reviews I have seen either.