EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) is the means by which the dead communicate with the living. By using the white noise from every day electronics such as television, radio, or while watching this film, A giant yawn the living can hear the voices of those that have passed on.
The theory is interesting, and I had read a lot about this (Interesting one has the voices of the dead communicating through a krupps coffee maker on Maryland's Eastern Shore)
The problem with EVP is that when listening to recordings, any noise can be a voice. And the minute you think you know what is being said you tell someone, "Listen to this, the voice says 'behind you', it's right here." Then of course everyone is listening for the words "behind you" and lo and behold they hear it because they are now open to the power of suggestion.
According to the commercials, the voices of the dead are all around us. Well I find it hard to believe that none of them attempted to communicate to me to stay away from this piece of shit.
It makes the Exorcist 4 seem like an Academy award winner. I wasn't expecting much from it honestly, and good damn thing because that is exactly what I got. Nothing.
It isn't scary, it tries to be atmospheric like The Ring but only manages to pull off one good scare and it is a cheap shot that the viewer sees coming from a mile away and it only causes a jump because seconds before it happens the viewer gives the director too much credit. (Surely he won't put a jump scare here, it is too obvious.)
Another thing the dead need to divulge is why they sent Michael Keaton back from their side. Clearly his career as of late could have spoken through my dishwasher,so why did he choose this vehicle to break his hiatus?
He sleepwalks his way through this film and has a range of emotion equal only to a can of EZ CHEEZE. I never considered him a great actor, but clearly he has some bills to pay.
The setup of this little yarn is cliche and again we see it from the moment the opening credits end and the movie begins. His wife dies and lo and behold he starts hearing her through his tv, radio, phone, computer...etc.
I can't divulge too much about this turd in a film can, not because of the abundant twists and turns but because I sat through the 1 hour and 43 minute running time and cannot make heads or tails out of what it was that I had seen. Even now, two days after seeing it I am still unsure if I even saw the movie.
It has some twists and turns, but none that make any sense and by the climax the writer has thrown so much bullshit at us that he himself realizes that he cannot figure out how to end the film and so he just does. No explanations, no resolution, a half-assed attempt at a twist and Lord only knows what the last ten seconds of the film was about.
Do yourself a favor and skip this one. Do others a favor and tell them to do the same. I will do myself a favor and get a labotomy because that is the only way I will stop trying to make sense of this movie.
Tony (AsMoral as Gene Siskel, only...alive.)
This post was last modified: 01-12-2005, 01:17 PM by Tony H.