If you can even call it a movie. Mostly, it's just the killer talking, and he never shuts up. This thing felt like a playwright wrote it for stage, but somehow it got made into this. It's not worth the time to watch it. Slow moving, will probably put you into a coma before the end of the movie. I recommend skipping it.
shareYeah, the killer did talk a bit too much . So much that it got annoying after a while, as did all the other characters who survived.
shareIt's kinda funny how the killer puts everybody who watches this movie through that same personal hell, isn't it? Like his victims, the movie is a slow, draining death, filled with pseudo-religious drivel from a Barney Fife wannabe. Unless you actually find his monologues charming and chilling... maybe it's best not to watch this.
I'd rather a Hannibal Lecter spirit any day. Or heck, this is a Wisconsin movie, why not bring back Ed Gein?
Total crud. And wtf was up with the blood? They never explained why he drained them. I was suspecting he was a damned vampire. No need to find an eloquent way to say this movie was bad-it was just stupid.
Excuse me--ya'll lookin' for a dead body??
He wasn't a vampire, it was his signature. He kept the blood as a trophy. Most serial killers keep something.
They're coming to get you, Barbara!
Ummm, yeah, they explained the significance of draining the blood. It was a metaphor that I won't describe here so as not to spoil the film.
This is a movie that requires the viewer to listen; it didn't rely on CGI or over-the-top gore to engage the viewer.
I understand, however, that this type of approach isn't to everyone's taste.
*SPOILER*
I agree with the OP. This film was awful! I had hopes for it to be quite good, given the description, the locale, and even the cover on the DVD!
The cinematography was decent (the location was perfect) and the music was creepy.
But the film seemed to go nowhere really. THAT was the whole premise of the film: An obvious nutbag turns out to be...a nutbag?! That the daughter (already obviously a psychopath) is MORE of a psychopath than the family let on?
There were no real revelations in the film, and that is usually necessary for a horror film to be truly effective.
The dialogue was hard to hear at times (there was NO subtitle option even grrrrr)
and the film was uneven in its script.
The girlfriend (Lynne) was ridiculous too. She watches the girl beat a woman's brains in with a rock, and barely even screams! That was BEFORE they even knew who this woman was!
The only thing I disagreed with was the pacing of the film. I didn't find it slow paced really, except in those bleeding scenes.
The film had great promise, but seemed a bit unclear in its subject matter.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
I liked it alot, but judging from the comments here alot of people didn't get it and are griping about things that were clearly explained.
I guess it wasn't for everyone, or wasn't for people who lack an attention span.
Yes, I agree it was pretty obvious Nick was going to turn out to be evil/a serial killer from the get-go. Although there were some things I enjoyed about this film, unfortunately it failed to live up to its potential. The best part for me was the original music. I loved it!
A few random observations:
Nick = Old Nick = another name for the devil
The white suit worn by Nick offers a whole range of interpretations as this interesting article demonstrates:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/fashion/2005/05/just_dandy.html
It was revealing (literally!) to see how upset he became when his shirt and white undershirt got dirty with that small spot of blood. He had to clean them right away. "Out, damned spot!" ;-)
Howard Hughes was known for wearing a white suit, he was OCD about dirt and germs, and stored bodily fluids (urine not blood) in jars. LOL
Actually, I think the white suit was evocative of the archetypal southern gentleman. But what's kind of cool is that it also served to buck another stereotype, that of white being worn by the good guy. In this case, we had a white-suited bad guy (like Boss Hogg).
Those scars all over Nick's back were freaky! What do you think they were caused by? It almost looked like maybe he had been burned in a fire.
I really liked the poster art and was hoping for a film that lived up to it.
Blackbird is a Marvel comics female supervillain and member of the Femizons.
I liked the irony that Mrs. Smith allows Nick into the house because she hopes he will be able to spread the word around town that the family is nice because they helped him out, while the whole time Nick already knows all about the Smith family because the townspeople had told him.
The part before Nick arrives where Mrs. Smith cuts up everyone's food and then locks the knife away was a nice touch. I was like, whoa! WTF is going on with this family?!
Morse's Law: There's always time for one more pint.
Plays sometimes do get turned into films; in fact there is a similar (at least in the beginning) film called Brimstone & Treacle which also began as a play. I don't think the film was slow at all.
"Passion is just insanity in a cashmere sweater."