While I’ve never read the book that this movie is based on, I’ve heard good things about it. I was looking forward to the movie more than I would be for the average horror movie, if for no other reason than the somewhat different look and feel of the story and the fact that it featured Jena Malone.

Writing: Like I said, I haven’t read the book that this is based on. I’ve got no idea how faithful it is to that story. Given that Scott Smith, the writer of the book, is the credited writer of the screenplay, I’d think it’s at least somewhat faithful. What’s up on screen works rather well. It’s a simple yet well structured story. It’s something that you’d hear as an urban legend or something. And it’s definitely creepy enough to work.

Production: Absolutely nothing to complain about here. From the nice location and set design to the simple yet dynamic cinematography, it all works very well. With the majority of the movie taking place on, in and around the ancient ruins, it was key that they get the logistics and gritty feel of that location right, which they did.

Cast: This movie doesn’t feature any big A-list kind of casting, but it does have some excellent actors at work. I’ve been a fan of Jena Malone since her excellent performance as a young Jodie Foster in Contact over ten years ago. She’s had a number of impressive performances since then, and this is yet another to add to the list. Shawn Ashmore actually has a pretty long credit list for his age, featuring a number of TV roles and some moderately high profile movie roles (such as the X-Men films, etc). He does a nice enough job in his role. I recognized Jonathan Tucker from the TV series The Black Donnellys (a series I definitely did not like), and was definitely impressed with his performance in this film. He gets the role of the med student who gets to practice said training much too soon. I had no familiarity with Laura Ramsey, who gets the toughest role of the girl that’s first infected, getting to go through a whole mental and physical breakdown as the story unfolds. It’s a raw, emotional performance, and she does an admirable job with it. Overall, it’s a good cast of young actors.

Music: Graeme Revell does a great job with the creepy and raw music score, which it a great fit for the film. It’s no big surprise that he could score a movie like this so well. His background and style makes him a perfect choice for this film, and he doesn’t dissappoint. It’s gritty and atmospheric with that excellent native instrument undertone. It’s as good a score as one would want for this kind of film. It’s draws little-to-no attention to itself, appropriately getting under the skin of the story and production (you’ll have to pardon that pun).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.