Horror scriptwriter Grafton Torn (how's that for a name?) wakes up from a coma with no idea of
what happened to him. In fact, there's a sizable chunk of time prior to the mysterious accident that is either fuzzy or missing all together. When he is released from the hospital, he retires to an unused country home owned by friend and colleague Deter McMannus (Mikhail Blokh) to recuperate.
It's a secluded home, but he's not all together alone. There are some nocturnal deer on the premises, Deter stops by for the occasional visit, and he's frequently accosted by a possessed doll and a disturbed man with a noose—these last two being previous subjects of his horror films. What's real, what's not, what happened to Grafton before, and what's happening to him now? Those are the questions that the film wants you to ask yourself.
I'll be honest: my first thoughts when starting this film were (a) this looks kind of cheap; and (b) some of these people aren't great actors. By the end of the film...well, it still looked cheap, and some of the people still weren't great actors, but I didn't really care anymore. This isn't a big budget Hollywood production, it's a low-budget horror movie, and it merely took a little while to grow accustomed to it. As for the acting, Bill Oberst Jr. does such a fantastic job of portraying the scarred and unsure Grafton Torn that he's more than capable of carrying the rest of the cast on his shoulders when needed. And Cindy Merrill, who plays Grafton's hypnotherapist Ally Morris, was the perfect distraction from any other shortcomings. This woman was born to be a Queen of the B's (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).
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| Yowza. |
First-time director Gregory Blair (who also wrote the script) certainly keeps you guessing, and just when you think you know where it's going, he yanks the rug out from under you. For my tastes, the finale was a bit weak compared to some of the moments that came before it, but I had a surprisingly good time regardless; and the Psycho-esque epilogue was pretty damned perfect.
As for Blair, with a bigger budget (and Oberst by his side), he'd be able to craft an unforgettable picture.
—J/Metro