I was really hoping that I wouldn't have any fixing to do as I had high hopes for this one. The pedigree of director Aja reeks of a man knocking on the doors of greatness but not quite there. This movie helps him knock even louder, but unfortunately no one is there to answer quite yet.
Let's get to the bitching:
-The first act of the movie is a drag. It takes way too long to get to the action, and what's worse is that instead of warming up to the characters, this first 25 minutes or so had me hating them. I appreciate that (almost) all of the characters were fleshed out enough that I hated them for different reasons, but there had to have been a better way to set up the movie. On a major major plus, it says a lot for the second and third act that even though I hated these characters, the bad guys were brutal enough that I still felt for the family.
-Considering the source material, Aja largely jettisons the grindhouse exploitation feel he seemingly mastered in High Tension. This isn't necessarily a negative, just a bit jarring when going in with a head of expectations. Having thought about it, the movie's pacing could have possibly been better served with the grindhouse feel.
-A few small rewrites could have easily jettisoned the character lapses in logic. It is probable that given the amount of stress the family is under that they aren't thinking clearly. That, however, is no excuse for two separate occasions that come to mind that I won't spoil, but will jump out at you when you watch.
-Sure there was some nuke testing and sure these people are pretty pissed about this..but the motives behind their actions still don't seem fully realized. As I see it, at one point in the movie, we were supposed to wonder who the monster really is, but unlike the Devil's Rejects, we are given no reason at all to feel for the mutants. In other words, at no time in the movie did it seem as if the family was doing any more than defending themselves. That is perfectly fine and good, except I don't think it was the intent.
-The mutants are difficult to take seriously when they look that much like the Toxic Avenger.
The good:
-The violence is absolutely unrelenting and jarring.
-The gore, courtesy KNB, is done extremely well while not going over the top. Not that over the top is a bad thing.
-The acting is passable. The writing is rather good in that it never took me out of the movie. Nothing excellent.
-The movie is enjoyable enough to own. It might not make you think too much, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
-Again, the mutants here are so brutal that you are never rooting for them. Their actions had me, an old horror vet, squirming at some time. I can't think of a movie that has put me in that situation..ever. The trailer raid is damn near perfect.
Overall I have no problem recommending this great, not perfect, horror flick to genre fans, especially fans of either the source material or High Tension. Aja had the perfect flick in High Tension and then dropped the ball on the ending. He had the perfect material here and maybe tried to stretch his boundaries when he didn't need to. I know the score here is probably going to seem much higher than my review would lead you to believe, but to be totally honest, most of the flaws here are really nitpicking. 8.8/10
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