Good movie but grossly overrated

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This thin story goes nowhere other films haven't gone before with more excitement and meaning or at least shocks. The moody first 20 minutes quickly turn into a slog after a "twist" that any brief description of the film will spoil before you watch it anyway.Like all of Hammer films recent (rebirth films--and much of their overall output and reputation) this is handsomely made film. Though most of it takes place on New Mexico shot interior sets it all looks seamlessly like NYC and features good real NYC exterior scenes. But so what? Jeffrey Dean Morgan proves that he has limits to what he can do here. I like the guy as a performer and he usually makes anything he is in better than it was before he arrived. Take the way he helped the second season of EXTANT TV series for example. But his acting isn't up to what's required here and his general vibe is all wrong. He is totally miscast here and can't overcome that. He seems too natural confident and relaxed to be the psychopathic obsessive loner we are supposed to believe him to be. The more they put him in situations that are to show how creepy his is the more the problem becomes and the situations become borderline silly.Swank is equally miscast really, not being willing to do any nudity--which a film that partly is supposed to be about sexuality its repression and obsession--requires, and she never seems emotionally or physically vulnerable. Her talking about being exhausted or repressed just seems like dialogue, not reflected in how she looks or acts.Why she'd be interested in being in a film like this is a bit of a puzzle. Being the center of almost every shot and probably being the largest single dollar amount in the budget would be appealing, sure.The whole thing finally turns into protracted and not well done slasher chase scene inside the apartment's confined inner recesses.Though the same director went on to do PURGE--leading to a successful theatrical run of movies--he does little here to show he has much interest in the genre. Only the classy production values separate this from a Lifetime movie and the fact that it barely got released is no surprise. This would be a not--too--good episode of Hammer's own previous television series in the 80's and it's just not, as made, a feature or worth feature length.Music score is useless adds nothing to the characters or supposed scares. Mostly the middle hour of the film is dull and predictable.Christopher Lee plays a part like his friend Peter Cushing did or might have were he still alive. That part is the old man. Really that's it, that's his role. He seems a little threatening....once.Lee plays it with a vacant, almost lost, old man look--that is not how he, himself looked at the time--so it is a performance and his final scene is well done physically--as Lee was always among other things a physical actor--even in a role here that requires mostly no movement. But having him in the movie and doing as little as they do here shows another level of script and directing disinterest. Especially to have him "return" to Hammer to make a film they basically do as little as possible with him. Still fans will see the potential the filmmakers didn't.The whole thing hardly seems worth the trouble of being made or watched.

This film is very simply about a creepy weirdo with serious mental health issues, he becomes obsessed with this woman and does what he can to get close to her. A shockingly simplistic plot, the entire film is completely void of any element of complexity.Hilary Swank ( Juliet ) redeems the lack of a story line, lack of detail and absence of other characters and insight into their character, with her convincing performance and own terribly likable character.This is an okay, average B-grade movie, with no real component of intellect to the story line. Entertaining enough to watch if it's what you have, a bit predictable, maybe a little difficult to engage in just because there is only surface value to the characters from what you see, and a lack of them to make things very interesting.Fortunately there is just enough, albeit not much element of suspense, in order for this film to be just passable in the quality and watchability department. I wouldn't recommend it but I wouldn't advise against it either.. It's something at least remotely entertaining to watch, that won't add any value to your life.

or: The Raquel Welch Clone and The Man With A Beard.Julia Roberts was too old to be cast in this film so the production company used her name and make-up artist instead. ''Names changed to protect the innocent'' as usual.If you enjoy voyeuristic phantasies, creaky doors and women in underwear you will love this pathetic attempt to publicly exorcise repressed cultural memories.Hilary Swank with her new dentures is sometimes alluring as the game-playing innocent abroad (3,800USD for an apartment?) but really, massaging moisturizer on your skin in your underwear is a long way from the director's couch scenario. The negotiations that must have taken place with her agent and the producer would make a film in itself.The morality tale is non-existent as it assumes that 'woman' has the upper-hand anyway in any relationship. She can pick and choose who she kisses and should not expect to be abused because of it. She can go to bed with whomsoever she wishes but, it must not be assumed that she does it for sex.One knows that the guy without the beard is really the one that Juliet wants. They slide off each other so easily. Exactly how she sleeps so soundly while being mauled by a pervert is not explained. Could it be anything to do with the amount of wine she consumes when she is not at the hospital trying to save lives or clubbing it or gossiping in the locker room?.As for Max (most villains are called Max in Hollyoodland) he could lick my pinkie anytime without all the fuss of constructing spy-holes. With the addition of a hood Jeffrey Dean Morgan becomes an embodiment of that rascal Robert Downey Junior. Presumably contracted with the proviso that he doesn't snort coke on set.The denouement is bloody and disgusting as befits the mainstream horror/popcorn genre.The moral: If your life depends on it, sod the Hypocratic oath .

The other reviewers have been very accurate with this movie. It is an average movie with just as many good parts as bad. There's some definite creepy atmosphere going on but there are also many lulls in the storyline.While the idea may be plausible I don't think it was executed very well. There is something very unbelievable about Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character not being able to get himself a girlfriend. It just seems a real stretch. Sometimes you need a pitiful looking actor otherwise it feels like a Hollywood executive just gave his mate a paying job.Nice try but the casting was off.