Famke Janssen is serving out the remainder of a prison sentence under house arrest after killing her apparently abusive husband (Michael Paré) in self-defence. She’s wearing an ankle bracelet which starts to beep after a couple of minutes, if she’s more than a hundred feet from her house. Problems arise when it appears that the vengeful ghost of her hubby is in the house tormenting her, even throwing her around. Bobby Cannavale plays the hubby’s former partner who checks in on Janssen from time to time, is hostile towards her, but finds it hard to explain how she’s getting beat up so bad. Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”) plays a young delivery boy who gets to be Dustin Hoffman to Janssen’s Anne Bancroft, if you catch my drift.
Although it gives the underrated Janssen a rare leading role, this supernatural horror-thriller is a major disappointment from genre writer-director Eric Red (screenwriter of the near-classics “The Hitcher” and “Near Dark”). Janssen is well-cast and it’s certainly a unique set-up for what turns out to be your typical ghost/revenge movie. It should be a pretty sure-fire thing, really, and in fact the plot itself is quite interesting for the most part. But it never really gets off the ground until it’s too late.
Red’s script certainly isn’t the biggest issue, though there are definite flaws. The film really needed more focus on the back-story (if only to give Paré some genuinely useful screen time, as he’s CGI-rendered here and only speaks one word!), and don’t even get me started on the comically inconsistent motives of the Cannavale character . The character changes his views on Janssen on a dime (three times in one scene!), to the point of stupidity, and is kinda obnoxious, really. In fact, everyone is way too antagonistic towards Janssen’s character to be credible. Even if they don’t know the real situation, most of the other characters are just plain mean. Janssen having a Mrs. Robinson-like fling with Westwick doesn’t really work. I consider him to be one of the worst actors of the last 30 years, and like Robert Pattinson, the supposed sex symbol has a face like a wet fart.
As a director, Red’s awfully uneven when it comes to creating tension, atmosphere, and terror. In fact, most of the time, he rushes things too much. Dude, give the scene a chance to build! He has a great opportunity for a scary, claustrophobic scene in a crawlspace, but instead it turns into a drab plot point with no horror payoff. Big mistake. There’s a great bit involving some flying plates, and some good, violent unseen ghost attack stuff, ala “The Entity”, but not nearly enough. The standard, clichéd garbage disposal scare is still effective, though. The second half is definitely better than the first, that’s for sure. The best scene has the ghost dishing it out to a certain Mother Chucker, a damn near public service if you ask me (despite some iffy CGI).
Red and cinematographer Ken Kelsch (“Susan’s Plan”, “Bad Lieutenant”) also don’t think much of former model Janssen’s looks, because they see fit to shoot her in the most unflattering light possible. The film looks dull, muted, and seriously ugly.
OVERALL SUMMARY
The plot has promise and Janssen turns up for work, but she’s swimming upstream in a film with little tension or atmosphere.
