A horror movie that came recommended to me, not because of the movie but because of the script. How was a bit round-about. There was a discussion about script contests on a writing board I frequent and one of the posters is a reader for contests. He mentioned a script he read and liked that the head of the contest didn't and rejected that eventually got made into a movie. I was curious what kind of script would be good enough that the reader would remember from the hundreds he read for the contest. Even rarer, the script actually got made into a movie with Hollywood actors including Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls), Brandon Quinn (Entourage and The OC), Tygh Runyan and Mercedes McNab (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). This is a review of the movie.
The story: four friends (one a photographer and one a model) go out into the desert for a photo shoot at a very remote location, but then their car runs off the road and now they have to survive lost in the desert and beset by vicious animals.
Was it good?
Not really. The story is just what it is and there isn't anything more to it. They try to get to water, but make a bad decision and then worse and worse stuff happens. There are also some odd choices: Lacey Chabert is playing a med student who has to make lots of life saving decisions, including trying to operate in the middle of the desert. Now I like Chabert, but she doesn't really play a med student well. Not only that but McNab is playing a model but honestly, Chabert looks hotter on screen. The diecting doesn't help. Although they are supposed to be dying of thirst, you don't really get a good feel for the atmosphere of the place. It needed more style or, lacking that, it needed more plot to keep things moving along. Instead it comes off almost like a character movie, but with no depth to the characters.
It was interesting talking to the reader and getting what he had liked so much about the script. It was lean and a good read. It had some nasty turns to it and it kept moving. All of that seemed to be lacking on screen. Which I bring up to show how hard it can be both to judge a screenplay and to take a screenplay that got people excited and translate it to a compelling film.
One thing I've noticed with a lot of these "people get lost" movies is that you either need a good switch at midpoint to really change things up. The Descent is one of the best...girls get trapped spellunking and at midpoint they are attacked by an underground cannibal! But if you aren't going to have a good external twist then it needs to come from character, but that is something these lean thrillers always lack and so the second half starts to feel repetitious even if you try to throw in some twists. Then you have to rely on the concept to really carry the audience for the full two hours (or ninety minutes) which very few concepts can.
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