The
only problems with this teen horror flick remake, the tale of an anonymously
menaced babysitter, are that it has neither scares nor surprises.
This PG-13 remake of a 1979
film counters a recent spate of gruesome horror films (Saw II, Wolf Creek,
Hostel) exploring the entertainment possibilities of torture. It’s the
two-generations-old saga of a crazy person who likes to go around scaring and
killing attractive young people. The good part is that instead of a whole bunch
of obnoxious teenagers behaving like idiots and one good girl, we mostly get
just the good girl, with friends relegated to small parts. As played by Camilla
Belle (striking as Daniel Day-Lewis’s daughter in last year’s Ballad of Jack
and Rose), our heroine seems like a nice, sensible girl, even though a
lapse in judgment means she’ll be babysitting for some rich folks instead of
going to the bonfire with her classmates. The bad part is that there’s not a
lot of scares or surprises. True, some nervous tension is built up by the
repeatedly ringing phone, the large, isolated house, and a couple of false
alarms. But nothing at all happens that you weren’t expecting.
posted 9/15/13
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