This Scott Glosserman-directed horror pic has something called Intelligence, a quality found rarely in recent American horror product. Like "Scream", it is an exercise in genre deconstruction, so horror fans will get the most mileage out of it. Although it owes its point of attack and a great debt to the Belgian "Man Bites Dog", and tills ground recently turned by "The Magician", an Aussie flick that earned some off-shore playdates, it does evolve into something more original in its third act. Despite boasting solid performances and a decent script, it plods along in parts and its night sequences are annoyingly underlit. Gore is not the point here, and neither is on-screen murder, so most of the killings are subtle and inventive with sound playing a key role. I can not fault this film for trying something a little different, but I have to say that the very familiarity of what it deconstructs, which is essential to its enjoyment, also renders the experience of watching it a little ho-hum at times.
