Check Out the Trailer

This horrible horror flick is based on a Dean Koontz book, which is unread by me. He’s a writer that seems to fall into the categories of love him or hate him. Considering that he adapted the screenplay for this film, I’m not leaning toward the love him camp to be honest.

Like so many horror movies, there is a kernel of an intelligent premise buried within spooky clichés and paper-thin characters. Horror writers really love their monsters, but can’t find central characters that aren’t from stock character central. Dr. Jennifer Pailey (Joanna Going, INVENTING THE ABBOTTS) picks up her sister Lisa (Rose McGowan, TV’s CHARMED) from L.A. to take her to a small town in Colorado so she can get away from the hectic life of the City of Angels. When they arrive in Colorado, the town they visit is deserted or dotted with dead people (or at least parts of dead people). The only living people the sisters run into are Sheriff Bryce Hammond (Ben Affleck, GOOD WILL HUNTING) and his deputies Stu Wargle (Live Schreiber, SCREAM 2) and Steve Shanning (Nicky Katt, SECONDHAND LIONS).

There’s a creature in town eating people, but every time the characters hear a scary noise or something ominous happens they head right toward the scary stuff instead of running like hell. Lame! Halfway through the film, the military shows up to check out what’s going on and they bring along a scientist turned tabloid writer named Dr. Timothy Flyte (Peter O’Toole, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA). When we find out more about the creature, the core idea, which deals with issues of being a god, is good, but the design of the creature and many of its motives are only to serve the plot.

All the characters are lame. O’Toole is the only one that has the experience to bring some believability to the rehashed dialogue. Schreiber doesn’t have a great character, but as the “bad guy” he has the opportunity to play it up a little. Affleck, Going and McGowan are a total waste, especially the women. The ending is really stupid. The creature is possibly the dumbest creature in film history. How the “heroes” kill it is even more stupid like Koontz couldn’t think of anything better so he just put any old thing in there. The film isn’t scary, isn’t engaging and isn’t worth another word.