There's a special place in hell for movies like this

I generally tend to believe there are three types of bad movies.

The first type - and the one that in my view is most forgivable - puts in a lot of effort and really wants to be a good movie, but just gets lost along the way. Think 'Bonfire of the Vanities,' 'Alexander,' or pretty much every film M. Night Shyamalan made after 'The Sixth Sense.'

The second type of bad movie - one which is slightly less easy to forgive - is the bad movie that really doesn't even seem to be trying to be good. The Police Academy sequels come to mind.

The third type of bad movie - one that is nearly impossible to forgive - is the odd movie that actually seems be TRYING to be BAD.

Unfortunately, Strangerland falls into the third category.

It starts out with a relatively intriguing if not incredibly original premise: two children go missing, and this forces a family with secrets to confront their demons.

As the movie progresses, however, you notice things don't seem to be falling into place plot-wise or character-wise. Worse - the movie seems to be doing this deliberately. It introduces and then drops characters that play no apparent role, and plot points that go absolutely nowhere. And the main characters just become weirder and less sympathetic and likable.

Every so often, the movie introduces a character or situation that you believe you can finally identify with, so you keep watching. Unfortunately, you almost immediately feel let down and manipulated when the movie seems to deliberately go out of its way to toss this aside and go back to being just plain weird and disjointed - almost as if the film is trying to say "had you going there, didn't I? Thought I was gonna start making sense? SUCKA!"

Eventually, you realize that the movie just isn't going to resolve anything, or to start to make sense, or pull out some sort of plot-twist that finally explains everything. And frankly, you just don't care anymore. You're just happy when the credits finally, mercifully start to roll. And you realize how much you hated this smug, self-important piece of celluloid crap that exists for no other reason than to believe it's smarter than you just because it made no sense whatsoever and lost your attention after the first fifteen minutes.

And you end up pissed - both at the movie itself for conning you in to watching it, and also at yourself, for letting yourself be conned.

I really like to think there's a special place in hell for people who make movies like this. As a punishment, they should have to watch their movies over and over again until the end of time.