In the first film that Wes Craven wrote and directed since New Nightmare in 1994, this film offers nothing new as far as jumpiness and gore in the horror genre. It's about a serial killer, Abel Plankov, that comes back from the dead and attempts to kill seven teenagers who were all born on the day that he died.
It's an interesting story. However, the acting sucks with the exception of John Magaro, who plays Alex, the best friend of the main character, Bug (Max Thieriot). Magaro has a bright future if he plays his cards right. Other than him, the actors are literally all terrible. The film isn't as scary as a lot of other films that I've seen this year. I mean, you see the "ghost" of Plankov within the first few minutes, which makes it a little less scary. However, there are a lot of jumpy chase scenes involving him towards the end. That, and you never know when he's going to strike. He doesn't look all that scary either.
Also, this film felt like it was leading towards a religious theme at some parts--e.g. camera shots focusing on pictures of Jesus, comments about going to church, etc.--but nothing came out of it, as though it was forgotten about.
The story of this film is somewhat unique, and it throws a couple twists your way, but overall, the bad acting and poor screenplay doesn't allow this film to climb the ranks with other films of the same genre.
Overall Grade: D+
-Ethan Brehm
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