Young Sally Hirst at the beginning of the movie is sent to live with father and his new girlfriend in big old creepy Gothic mansion - she discovers a race of creatures under the basement floor, and decides to let them out - BIG mistake. Stylistically it looks like a Guillermo Del Toro movie (as it should since he is credited as one of the three writers) but it's up to newcomer director Troy Nixely to deliver the goods, which he does sporadically. The biggest problem is that the characters are on the one dimensional side and it all plays out in the standard 'old dark house' horror cliches and trappings (which do work mind you) but Guy Pearce as the father seems and acts like a total wall flower at times. Katie Holmes fares a little better, surprisingly. Bailee Madison as Sally does alot of great screaming and smashing of a few creatures to a gory pulp (the audience I saw this with, loved those scenes). The creatures are a nasty bunch (which resemble leaner spider like 'ghoulies') and the effective 5.1 soundmix has them scurrying in and around inside the walls and speaking to Sally - to freak her and the audience out. Mind you it's a fun horror movie, but one wonders if Del Toro had actually directed this, if characterization might have been better refined.
The film was followed by a question and answer session with producer Mark Johnson and I have to say, it was by far the worst Q&A I've had the chance to listen to at the Virginia Film Festival - David Edelstein was snarky and asking unrelated questions to the film which we had just seen and given the fact that we were one of the first audiences to see the movie, more time should have been allotted to our questions for Mr. Johnson. It was a strange flawed movie for the festival's centerpiece screening, Del Toro was supposed to have been at the Q&A, but cancelled, obviousily his non-presence was sorely missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment