by Sam Whittaker

Created on: June 01, 2008

This excellent thriller is obviously based on Alfred Hitchcock's film Rear Window, which revolves around an incapacitated man observing a serial killer from his window. I didn't know this when I went to see this, and to be honest, I was expecting something completely different. I thought it would be a kind of less gory version of the Saw films, but this is more of a thriller than a horror film. Although the whole cinema knows that Turner is a killer, it's how to prove it that's the problem.

Suspense is rife throughout, and all the actors put in excellent performances, Shia laBoef proving himself again. Even Sarah Roemer, who is a model as well as an actor (never a good sign) plays her part very well. This means that you easily identify with Kale and the other main characters, and (unlike some other films) you care about what happens to them.

It's incredible how much fear this one guy can inspire, even when we haven't seen any proof that he's dodgy except the car. He just has an air of menace about him. You can tell yourself it's your intuition if you want, but it's probably just good acting on the part of David Morse. Those scenes where you don't know where he is are quite terrifying.

Although quite gory at times, they don't overdo it on the blood front, and although the film is about a serial killer, you don't actually see much killing going on. Another way in which this film affects you is that this could really happen to anyone; as the slogan from the trailer states; "Every killer lives next door to someone". Coming back to my dark house after watching it, with noone else in, and the lights all off, I was distinctly spooked.

There are also a few elements of humour in the film, for instance the policeman assigned to watch Kale, who happens to be a cousin of the Spanish teacher who got thumped. Kale's friend Ronnie (who you might think was just put there to complete the "white bloke-foreign bloke-white girl" team that crops up in so many films) actually turns out to serve a purpose, and have quite a good (but warped) sense of humour. You'll know what I mean when you see it.

The love story of the film, namely between Kale and Ashley, is possibly the only weak point. It is so predictable from the very start, and doesn't really add much to the plot. Still, anything that comes out of Hollywood these days has got to have love (that said, I reviewed I Am Legend the other day, and there was no love story in that. I suppose there was Will Smith's dog).

The climatic scene lasts at least 20 minutes, although it feels like hours, and is by far the best scene in the film. There is slight plot hole concerning it which I can't give away, but it doesn't spoil the suspense and fear of the dramatic finale.

The film does feature the usual scenes of people doing things that they obviously shouldn't be doing, and you sitting there silently shouting abuse at them for being so stupid when they know there's a deranged murderer on the loose, but then, so do most good horror films.

Apart from that and its predictability, there is nothing else that detracts from this rather excellent film.

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