@luckymojo: I saw the film in a small but packed cinema at a midnight screening. The audience was laughting tears in the end (even my friend who isn't into horror films). It's far from glorified torture porn :o!
Seems to me like the sci-fi elements were just an excuse to reach a wider audience. It gets ditched in the first half hour and what we are left with is a story of people trapped in a small space going insane. There is no depth or subtlety to it which makes for an unsatisfactory experience. I think Danny Boyle's Sunshine was a big influence on the movie, some ideas and especially the soundtrack were basically ripped off..
Maybe as an addition to the other links, for those wondering what happened with the lawsuit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam#Aftermath
The assistant manager actually got a million out of it aswell.. :O??
I guess this movie was.. allright? The main issue with it for me was that it's so unbelivable that it's distracting even thought it's based on real events. The question is if you really have to see a movie about it..
Interview + Footage from the real event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFXeXK3szOk (consider it a spoiler)
News article: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS01/510090392&loc=interstitialskip /
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20060316/NEWS01/603160403/Man-gets-five-years-role-hoax-Mount-Washington-McDonald-s
It's out on VOD / https://www.facebook.com/sidebysidethemovie/app_205521576149308
and in limited release /http://sidebysidethemovie.com/now-in-theaters/
A messy anthology, overall a let down.
Ranking them:
1) The Accident: Did not fit in and wasn't even horror... sill the best segment of the bunch.
2) Vision Stains: The idea needed more runtime to be explored and probably less voiceovers.
3) Sweets: Was allright, the ending did deliver.
4) Mother of Toads: Probably the most standard story for an anthology, the location saved this one.
5) I Love You: Did not care for this at all.
6) Wet dreams: Way to campy and boring.. some effects were enjoyable but apparently they were not Savini's work.
Uhm yeah, some people belive this movie can be used to raise social awareness from internet predators (which was part of it's intent according to the director).. I would not do that with this movie. According to comments at IMDB some folks even showed this to their teenage kids?!
While it's true that the last 22 minutes are effective, it's mainly for the reason that this is some sick shit. What builds up to this is horrible dialog from stupid teenagers who don't look their age (Megan is supposed to be 13/14).
It's an OK movie if you're down to watch something in this vain but in the end it's just torture porn based loosley on ideas from "true events".
Sweet take on the "Haunted House" genre.
I'm suprised how anybody who hasn't read the books can enjoy this film. It must be so hollow if you can't flesh it out yourself (lack of world building, no ending, underdeveloped everything).
Major annoyance plus for the choice of shaky cam from second one...
Unfortunately this lacks meat... it comes of as a giant circle-jerk between the ILM guys, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Watch out for mines :o
