I really hate giving this film a lower score, and not only because it's got a lot of those as of this writing. It really doesn't deserve ALL the negativity it's getting. I won't speculate on why so many reviewers seem to have problems with the characters - a group of predominantly gay individuals - or why they can't understand how they could be friends etc. The film actually does a good job of distinguishing them, and defining relationships, and I enjoyed the first half while they were being established. I prefer horror films that allow us to get to know the characters, and I give credit to the writer/director for doing a better than average job at it. And the performances from the main cast are all good, with some actors I'd like to see more of. That's pretty rare for such a low budget endeavor.
But once we cut to the detectives at a crime scene it stumbles so badly it is almost impossible to recover. First, the actors are bad. And then what they are saying is so poorly written it makes one question who wrote all the other scenes. Nothing about these scenes (and there are more than one) works on any level. Cops walk through blood trails; detectives jump to the most spurious assumptions; forensics can show up and be done in a few minutes and the chief behaves in such an unprofessional manner the only excuse would be if we are supposed to think he might be a suspect. And then once the action starts happening the film's other weaknesses stand out even worse. Technically there are some weird sound problems and some bad music choices. Weak editing becomes glaring during moments of violence as it tries to cut around budget, effects and stunt deficiencies and fails miserably. The staging and story crumbles; it sets up the murderer in a blatantly obvious fashion which is then treated like it's supposed to be a surprise. Characters run away only to have the killer repeatedly pop out in front of them as if he's teleporting or as if they are only going to the places where the killer is waiting for them. The enthusiasm I felt during the first half hour waned during the next half hour and then crashed. My score dropped from a 7 to a 3, but I'll settle for a 4 because the first half was refreshingly believable. If the filmmaker sticks with character pieces I'd be willing to give them another chance, but if its a genre piece where the attention to staging, logic and style makes the difference between something good or the huge amount of rubbish out there I might not bother.
But once we cut to the detectives at a crime scene it stumbles so badly it is almost impossible to recover. First, the actors are bad. And then what they are saying is so poorly written it makes one question who wrote all the other scenes. Nothing about these scenes (and there are more than one) works on any level. Cops walk through blood trails; detectives jump to the most spurious assumptions; forensics can show up and be done in a few minutes and the chief behaves in such an unprofessional manner the only excuse would be if we are supposed to think he might be a suspect. And then once the action starts happening the film's other weaknesses stand out even worse. Technically there are some weird sound problems and some bad music choices. Weak editing becomes glaring during moments of violence as it tries to cut around budget, effects and stunt deficiencies and fails miserably. The staging and story crumbles; it sets up the murderer in a blatantly obvious fashion which is then treated like it's supposed to be a surprise. Characters run away only to have the killer repeatedly pop out in front of them as if he's teleporting or as if they are only going to the places where the killer is waiting for them. The enthusiasm I felt during the first half hour waned during the next half hour and then crashed. My score dropped from a 7 to a 3, but I'll settle for a 4 because the first half was refreshingly believable. If the filmmaker sticks with character pieces I'd be willing to give them another chance, but if its a genre piece where the attention to staging, logic and style makes the difference between something good or the huge amount of rubbish out there I might not bother.