Potential but no delivery

rsbmovie

score 3/10

I was able to view this at Sundance and couldn't have been more disappointed. I'm not sure if Eli Roth was trying to make this a campy horror, a legitimate horror, or a social commentary. He failed miserably in all three regards.

1. As an adoring fan of Cabin Fever, I keep hoping Roth with find a way back to creating edgy horror that doesn't take itself too seriously. The last two minutes did elicit a few chuckles from the audience but seemed inconsistent with the rest of the movie which had a very serious tone.

2. The movie had the potential to be a thrilling horror along the lines of Fatal Attraction. Unfortunately the seduction felt forced and the mental instability of the girls completely unbelievable. Furthermore, the horror scenarios were so contrived that I found myself getting bored rather than terrified: a small Lorenza Izzo overpowering a large Keanu Reeves, using extension cords for restraining when they can't generate sufficient tension, being held at gun point just inches from a semiautomatic gun that likely has not had a round chambered, Aaron Burns leaving a tied up Keanu Reeves because the girls are destroying art, the cliché tripping while trying to run away, the premise that all neighbors within earshot of a screaming Keanu were on vacation…the movie was one "Oh come on" after another.

3. The movie ends with the premise that, presented with temptation, all men will succumb. As mentioned, the seduction felt forced and completely unnatural. Keanu Reeves was a great father and husband. His obvious discomfort at the two womens' advances vanishes instantaneously as he becomes a flirtatious DJ and the rather irate Keanu, upon finding the two naked women, is suddenly pacified as soon as they unzip his fly. I find it hard to believe that Keanu Reeves character would have done anything he was shown to do in the movie and therefore reject the social premise that men are sexual deviants.

Most of the conversation I heard after the movie was negative. I'm still holding out hope that Eli Roth has another great movie in him. But this definitely wasn't it.

rsbmovie 26 January 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3171093/