This was a decent attempt at a horror thriller, and with a little more work and a bit of finesse, could have been something special. The concept was good, but the direction is erratic and the choice of some actors for their respective roles don't quite work, like Richard Riehle as the landscape guy Allen, and Ken Hudson Campbell as the best friend of David Vanowen (Ford Austin). There are a couple of quite noticeable continuity problems, like the time Vanowen moves the money back into the box in the backyard, bundled into a black garbage bag. He nails the box shut, but when he opens it back up, the money can be seen loosely stacked. The next day the money is back in a garbage bag. Even more apparent is the time David disposed of his bloody clothes in the dumpster after he got fired. He's wearing a clean, white t-shirt, but when he gets back into his car to drive away, the shirt is blood soaked at the right shoulder. These instances were just too glaring and spoke to the carelessness of the film makers.
What I think the impression they were trying to go for was the idea that David Vanowen was always a mental case. It's pretty much confirmed when he brings his 'first' body down into the basement of the house, and there are already a handful there. You're left to wonder if they were put there by the prior owner of the house, but if he was the dead guy in the box, then how did HE get there? You try to wrap your head around the inconsistencies in the story and they point to David being insane. After he gets fired of course, then the mental breakdown becomes all the more evident.
There are a few unanticipated jump scares in the story, particularly the ones involving the corpse, which pops up now and then to create havoc with David's mental state. The paranoia over losing the money if someone found out he was a millionaire appeared to be the catalyst for his rapid decline, but if he were rational to begin with, why couldn't he have put the money away in a safe place and called authorities to deal with the dead body. It's not like he could have been the murderer if he had just bought the house and telegraphed his intention to put in a new septic. When you go full circle, you almost have to consider that the dead guy in the box was David himself to begin with, and the film played out as a recurring nightmare of a dead man.
What I think the impression they were trying to go for was the idea that David Vanowen was always a mental case. It's pretty much confirmed when he brings his 'first' body down into the basement of the house, and there are already a handful there. You're left to wonder if they were put there by the prior owner of the house, but if he was the dead guy in the box, then how did HE get there? You try to wrap your head around the inconsistencies in the story and they point to David being insane. After he gets fired of course, then the mental breakdown becomes all the more evident.
There are a few unanticipated jump scares in the story, particularly the ones involving the corpse, which pops up now and then to create havoc with David's mental state. The paranoia over losing the money if someone found out he was a millionaire appeared to be the catalyst for his rapid decline, but if he were rational to begin with, why couldn't he have put the money away in a safe place and called authorities to deal with the dead body. It's not like he could have been the murderer if he had just bought the house and telegraphed his intention to put in a new septic. When you go full circle, you almost have to consider that the dead guy in the box was David himself to begin with, and the film played out as a recurring nightmare of a dead man.