I had seen this at Blockbusters, but it didn't appeal to me because of the creepy cover, but then decided to give it a go after I read that the main actor in Castaways on the Moon was in it, and that the movie had an interesting twist on the fairy tale idea.
Turns out it's in the dark fantasy/thriller/horror genre, of which I can't say I'm a huge fan, but my problem with the film was in the filmmaking and how poorly the visual narrative was handled. The story itself might actually work on paper, but the visual development of the story left a lot to be desired.
There are countless visual cues and clues that go no where. They're presented, suggesting something related will come out of it, and then nothing ever does. The film doesn't develop and build on what it presents and relies just on what's provided on the screen at the moment while just maintaining a basic, threadbare story arc.
It's not an intelligent film in that once you start thinking about all the narrative elements and try to put the parts together to figure the whole thing out, it makes absolutely no sense and thus wasn't satisfying. This film was made for fans of the genre who don't need the film to make narrative sense, and saying it that way it's an effective enough film. I would recommend it to fans of the genre. It's creepy and suspenseful, but that's all. It just makes no overall sense, and to be intelligent, it needs to make sense. If it doesn't make sense, it's a waste of my time.
Rotten 4 out 10 tomatoes.
As far as I'm concerned, this was a slasher film in the guise of a revenge-thriller. It's not an incompetent film, it was just not to my taste. I give it a thumbs down 4 out of 10 rotten tomato rating for misogyny and unnecessary and unrelenting violence.
It's about a serial killer who ostensibly kills one victim that launches a vengeance crusade by the victim's boyfriend/fiance. There's a lot of unmitigated evil portrayed in the film, which perhaps is hinted at in the title.
There may be a morality play suggesting that revenge is not an answer to a wrongdoing, but the message pales alongside the portrayals of evils why-do-we-even-want-to-imagine? can possibly occur in this world.
Furthermore, the moral message is further diluted by the fact that the protagonist goes way beyond revenge. He doesn't know when to stop and just come to terms with his grief, and his actions create even more harm to people around him. And in his own sadism, he crosses the line over to evil himself.
Unlike most rental DVDs, I only needed to watch this once. It was not something I needed to experience twice, although I did review the final scenes before I returned it to remind myself how the vengeance played out.
For me, part of the value of a film is the ability or desire to watch it multiple times. There was nothing redeeming in this film that warranted a second viewing.
Like I said, it's not an incompetent film, and I would hypothetically recommend it to fans of the genre – people who like gore, don't mind misogyny, or don't mind seeing the depths of human nature that can be reached.
