A married couple going through a rough patch in their relationship get lost on a road trip in backwoods Alabama. After seeking advice from an intimidating cop (Michael Madsen) they still end up in trouble, and eventually seek refuge at an inn run by creepy caretakers Leslie Easterbrook and Bill Moseley. Soon another couple turn up at the inn, but so does a spooky serial killer known as The Tin Man. He gives the four lodgers an ultimatum; Deliver him a body by morning, and the other three will be free to go. But as our protagonists search the creepy inn for weapons, they find themselves being haunted by sins from the past.
Not a remake of the 1986 genre film starring William Katt, but a Robby Henson-directed horror film apparently based on a Christian novel. I didn’t know this going in, and actually never got a Kirk Cameron vibe from the film at all. I did, however, get a Rob Zombie vibe, given it stars three actors who have appeared in his films (Leslie Easterbrook, Bill Moseley, and Lew Temple). I guess you could say that the theme of ‘sin’ has its connections to religion, but plenty of non-religious films have dealt with the topic, and there’s a disconcerting amount of…well, horror for a supposedly Christian story, if you ask me, so atheists like myself shouldn’t have too much to complain about on that front. At any rate, it’s watchable, but no world-beater, as there’s only a certain amount you can do with this basic concept which is pretty old-hat by now. If anything, the film tries to throw in a little too much- Sins, the creepy caretakers, and the Tin Man. Any one of these story strands could make a film on its own, to be honest. Together it just seems to be too much.
It’s also pretty formulaic, really, though the well-cast Moseley (giving his usual performance, a good thing in my book) and especially Easterbrook give it a boost. When they’re on screen, the film is quite watchable. I mean, hey, I like a creepy house movie as much as the next guy, and we don’t get too many these days. Unfortunately the film is bathed in the same kind of filtered blue & green visuals that far too many horror films have been adopting lately. It’s lazy filmmaking, in my book, and so unnatural. The house’s interiors would look great if we could actually see them in colours other than blue or green. The only time I’ve really found this kind of lighting to be realistic was in “Panic Room”, otherwise it’s just unnecessary artifice.
Colour scheme aside, this isn’t a bad B-movie, just too formulaic to really succeed. Michael Madsen fans will be disappointed with his five minute or so appearance, which turns out to be little more than a retread of R. Lee Ermey’s work in the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake. Terrible ending, too, I must say. Screenplay by Rob Green, Ted Dekker, and Frank Perretti, the latter two being the authors of the novel on which this film is based.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Watchable, but full of clichés. At the very least this shows you can make a film based on religious material and not alienate non-believers with preachy material. Now, if only they actually made a good film…
