Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Let’s start with the good news. This film takes the isolated group of teens in a haunted house/lost in the woods cliche and re-works it. The camera work is well-done, the acting is believable, and there is a twist at the end that even a plot-guesser like me didn’t catch on to at first.
Now, I don’t like to post negative reviews, especially since Vincent D’Onofrio could easily kick my ass. Let me just say that this is a horror-musical, and although I like horror, I was not into the musical. The band is a Matchbox 20/Hootie and the Blowfish modern singer-songwriter earnest and sincere emo folk music big ball of bland. And I hate it. But if you like the music, you will LOVE this movie.
I also have some issues with pacing. Almost the entire first 2/3 of the movie is singing. Then we bring girls in to sing more (and because they scream better) so finally we get an amuse bouche of gore. Then there is time for lots more singing before we finally get to some fashionably late spree killing. There is no Hitchcockian tension. The only tension is while you clutch the arms of couch listening to yet another soft rock tune, screaming, “Kill him! Make it stop! Oh God, please! Hit him with a sledgehammer already!”
