what worked, what didn't... (SPOILERS)
i decided to check this film out after discovering the new zealand television series "this it not my life," which features tania nolan in a starring role.
there were a lot of things that i liked about this film: the locations, the slow pacing, ms. nolan's acting, the moody lighting, the sound design, some of the low camera angles...
for a film shot on digicam, it really looked good for the most part.
however, there were a lot of issues as well. the soundtrack was over-saturated with that silly theme. also, all the cut-away shots of the surrounding country side really took me out of the moment.
then, of course, there's your typical inexperienced film-maker with a digicam folly: close-ups using a wide-angle lens. i counted at least 4 of such close-ups that were warped, almost fish-eyed, because the wrong lens was used. i didn't mind it too much when ms. nolan's character locked herself in the bathroom, as it ws an intense moment and called for something expressionistic; however, in the other instances, it was merely a glaring amateurish mistake.
the biggest weakness, though, has to be the script. i found the first "twist" to be cliche. not only that, but i found it hard to believe that the nurses fought for so long before one of them decided to pick up the knife that was right beside them on the floor.
the second "twist," involving the accomplice, well, was that a twist? it was well established throughout the film that the killer was a doctor and that the nurse needed assistance to pull off some of the scare tactics (such as turning on the music).
i didn't mind the dialogue, as i found it to be believable; however, as someone with a background in medicine, i assure you that those nurses didn't have the faintest clue what they were doing. the writer-director probably should've done more research for the scenes involving the patient. there's more to nursing someone with a severe respiratory problem than feeling their pulse.