Dennis Hopper plays yet another mentally challeneged man in this so-so thriller from ‘Prom Night’ director Paul Lynch, that has it’s feet firmly planted in the horror genre, despite being too dramatic and freaky to be a horror film or a thriller.
I thought of this as a psycho-drama, and whilst it was entertaining enough, it wasn’t that intruiging and I didn’t care for the characters.
Dennis Hopper scares me as I’m never sure if he’s just being himself or if he’s acting, Asia Argento was cool, but then she is in real life so it wasn’t too demanding of her. Lochlyn Munro is a cool guy but his character was way too similar to the one he played in Freddy vs. Jason, and whilst Helen Shaver is normally quite likeable, she was beyond freaky here and you just wanted to slap her for being so stupid.
The film has nice locations and many talented cast and crew memebers going for it, but I bet that if it were not for them, this wouldn’t have even gone to DVD as the story is overdrawn and there is no real point to any of it.
A goofy TV subplot is thrown in to make Dennis Hopper’s character even more freaky but it only made you question the seriousness of the project, as it really did begin to tread the line between quirky thriller and farce.
If handled correctly, a lack of motive can make a film’s conclusion even more chilling, but here it just made the ensuing 90 minutes even more unbelieveable.
OVERALL SUMMARY
A decent watch if you’ve not got much to do or are ill (like I was when I watched this) over the holidays but there are far better thrillers out there.
