It's been a little while since I had the chance to view this little gem at a special screening so if I forget some things it's OK. I can come back and fix it later.
Being a follower of young, and very well accomplished, director Russ Diaper, I could not wait until I got to view this long-awaited film and boy did it not disappoint.
Like his previous film, Deadly Pursuit, this film is shot entirely professional while still retaining some of its proud low budget attributes. The film is basically about this guy (once again it's been a while so the names aren't fresh in my head) who has lost his wife and as a result closes down the hotel that he runs. A little while later he decides to open shop much to his uncertainty. Like every film of this genre he opens the hotel and begins to see some, and I say this with all sincerity, pretty scary things. There is one moment in the film that actually caused me to jump right out of my chair. I won't ruin it for you but it involves a crying baby in the next room, a guy in the other, and the guy goes to investigate the sound and he puts his eyes to the keyhole. Enough said. By far the scariest scene in the whole movie but that's not to say it's the only scare.
I need to re-view the film in order to grasp the full details of this film but the ending was honestly flawless. The scene with the old man speaking to the main character in a room, pitch black, with only the light reflecting off of the old man's eyes as he's explaining everything that is going on is by far the CREEPIEST scene in the movie. There's just something about two characters in the dark revealing all the events of the film with only their eyes showing that give me the willies. The scene, however, with the old man (at least in the cut I watched) chanting to rid the hotel of the evil did run on for a little too long with no cutaways, just a single shot of the old man chanting nonstop. That is my only gripe with the film.
The acting does kinda start off at the beginning a little sluggish with some obvious newbies to the acting world but that doesn't last for very long. I found myself easily drawn into the story because once the very mildly sluggish acting in the beginning evaporated I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.
Now my favorite part of any movie is the score. The score for this film is very very well-done for a guy who wrote, directed, produced, just did about everything for this film in such a short time. I had a rare chance to speak with the director of this film who advised me that the music was done in one or two days. With what was presented in the film I don't see how it was done. There's so many layers and beautiful music pieces in there that should have but didn't take days and weeks and months to complete.
Overall I rate this film an 8/10. This film was definitely an improvement over Mr. Diaper's first directing debut which was very impressive for a first film, but because these are totally different genres and I prefer the horror genre over the whole cop drama genre I prefer this film more. Both are very well-shot and directed so either way you can't go wrong.
Last thing I'd like to note is that the somewhat lacking in realism CGI from DP is missing from this film and that is definitely a godsend because this film does not need it to make it amazing.
If you see this film in stores, online, or wherever, check it out. It's definitely worth a look.
