I was immediately put off by the opening titles which looked like something done on a cheap home computer. Shortly thereafter, the film starts with a flashback to 1957, and yet the train shown heading towards the school bus is clearly modern - it could have been filmed without showing the actual design of the locomotive. And then the acting begins. The main character Melanie (Leah Pipes) is reunited with her father, who acts like ... an actor selling himself as a doting father. But through all the early put-offs, I watched the whole film.
If this had a $1M budget, much of the money must have gone to the most well-known actors, cos it just seemed like the film needed more money for better production. When you lose viewers' ability to believe in what you're showing, it can be an uphill struggle to win back the audience. And, it didn't need so much special effects, but perhaps better cinematography and lighting. The little girl that Melanie routinely encounters could have been filmed with some kind of eerie lighting based on the fact that she's been dead (not spoilers, part of the film plot). Yet we're left guessing whether Melanie actually knows she IS dead in the first third of the movie.
The story is simply hurt by some less-than-good film-making. The plot itself kept me curious enough to keep watching the next scene, even after the death of one character, whose acting made me roll my eyes. Melanie and her sister are better than most... their mother made me want to strangle her myself, so she is effective as a rude mother - until she simply goes overboard with her actions later in the film.
Yet for the film's underachievement, it still has some moments in which my neck hair stood up. The screenwriter hurt a promising story just enough to call it average, yet still watchable and entertaining enough, and even though I actually didn't mind the core reasons why things happened, I groaned at the very end of the film, which made me want to throw buttered popcorn at my HDTV. I'm just glad I didn't have any at the time.
If this had a $1M budget, much of the money must have gone to the most well-known actors, cos it just seemed like the film needed more money for better production. When you lose viewers' ability to believe in what you're showing, it can be an uphill struggle to win back the audience. And, it didn't need so much special effects, but perhaps better cinematography and lighting. The little girl that Melanie routinely encounters could have been filmed with some kind of eerie lighting based on the fact that she's been dead (not spoilers, part of the film plot). Yet we're left guessing whether Melanie actually knows she IS dead in the first third of the movie.
The story is simply hurt by some less-than-good film-making. The plot itself kept me curious enough to keep watching the next scene, even after the death of one character, whose acting made me roll my eyes. Melanie and her sister are better than most... their mother made me want to strangle her myself, so she is effective as a rude mother - until she simply goes overboard with her actions later in the film.
Yet for the film's underachievement, it still has some moments in which my neck hair stood up. The screenwriter hurt a promising story just enough to call it average, yet still watchable and entertaining enough, and even though I actually didn't mind the core reasons why things happened, I groaned at the very end of the film, which made me want to throw buttered popcorn at my HDTV. I'm just glad I didn't have any at the time.