A loser film student, Grace, is befriended by some aggressive, arrogant, and annoying guy named Quaid. He convinces the loser to write his thesis about dread. For the thesis they, with the help of an editor friend of Grace's, interview students about fear, nightmares and so on. Nothing impresses Quaid, except some kid who lost his hearing for a while. Grace has some mild fear of cars because his brother died in a car crash. The editor girl is a vegetarian because her dad used to work at a slaughterhouse and used to molest her after coming home from work. A girl Grace works with has a giant birthmark that covers half of her body. But it's Quiad's fear and panic that has the greater impact. He witnessed his parents being butchered by some maniac who was never found. He has nightmares and visions about it.
As time goes by Quaid's behavior gets more aggressive, manipulative, bizarre and even violent. He attacks an interview who was just acting. He aims to confront his new friends with their fears in most brutal ways, hoping they will meet the monster.
While one expects his story to take a turn, and there is a confrontation, it turns out it's the vegetarian girl whose story is the most surprising and twisted. This being a Clive Barker story the turn the story will take is just brilliant. The problem however is with the movie. There is no doubt it's quite effective. You end up despising the villain more than any other villain in recent movies. Perhaps even the movie will sicken you. But this is achieved by sheer ugliness and by wearing you down. And this movie is ugly. The actors are unattractive and once you are caught up in Quaid's obsession, there is nothing nice anywhere in the movie, except for a few minutes of romance between Grace and the editor girl. The movie also looks ugly, everything is a tone of brown. The pace is awfully slow even though it's not particularly long and that's what gets you. You're slowly dragged into a world of ugliness with no respite. All that nastiness almost detracts from the great story. I wouldn't mind seeing this story filmed by a different crew and a different cast. There is potential here. On the positive note, the violence and gore are terrific. The gore is surprising and well made. The special features include an interesting conversation between the man himself, Clive Barker, and the director.
As time goes by Quaid's behavior gets more aggressive, manipulative, bizarre and even violent. He attacks an interview who was just acting. He aims to confront his new friends with their fears in most brutal ways, hoping they will meet the monster.
While one expects his story to take a turn, and there is a confrontation, it turns out it's the vegetarian girl whose story is the most surprising and twisted. This being a Clive Barker story the turn the story will take is just brilliant. The problem however is with the movie. There is no doubt it's quite effective. You end up despising the villain more than any other villain in recent movies. Perhaps even the movie will sicken you. But this is achieved by sheer ugliness and by wearing you down. And this movie is ugly. The actors are unattractive and once you are caught up in Quaid's obsession, there is nothing nice anywhere in the movie, except for a few minutes of romance between Grace and the editor girl. The movie also looks ugly, everything is a tone of brown. The pace is awfully slow even though it's not particularly long and that's what gets you. You're slowly dragged into a world of ugliness with no respite. All that nastiness almost detracts from the great story. I wouldn't mind seeing this story filmed by a different crew and a different cast. There is potential here. On the positive note, the violence and gore are terrific. The gore is surprising and well made. The special features include an interesting conversation between the man himself, Clive Barker, and the director.