Beware of any film that sets to improve on a very well defined genre.
Westerns have given us some real masterpieces, films that stand out in the long list of great american films.
It's really too bad when a director feels he can improve on the style by showing his own talent and aiming much too high.
Here we have a situation that has been treated many times, a group of people, in this case a family, trapped in a house in the middle of nowhere under siege from a group of particularly mean killers.
What could have been the twist is that the person who will fight back is the one you'd least expect : a litttle girl.
Only every move every line of dialog take ages, it's so long and boring that it kills all tension, you just wish they would get along with the story and move on.
The director wants you to see how clever and intelligent he is and to do this he really takes his time. Long shots on people who don't say anything, meaningful looks that lead nowhere....
Had he played the story and directed his film more humbly he might have had a really good film to show.
This is not the case.
Special mention to the cast and particularly the little girl, but it's not enough.
Westerns have given us some real masterpieces, films that stand out in the long list of great american films.
It's really too bad when a director feels he can improve on the style by showing his own talent and aiming much too high.
Here we have a situation that has been treated many times, a group of people, in this case a family, trapped in a house in the middle of nowhere under siege from a group of particularly mean killers.
What could have been the twist is that the person who will fight back is the one you'd least expect : a litttle girl.
Only every move every line of dialog take ages, it's so long and boring that it kills all tension, you just wish they would get along with the story and move on.
The director wants you to see how clever and intelligent he is and to do this he really takes his time. Long shots on people who don't say anything, meaningful looks that lead nowhere....
Had he played the story and directed his film more humbly he might have had a really good film to show.
This is not the case.
Special mention to the cast and particularly the little girl, but it's not enough.