Messy "horror" film from Kevin Smith tells the story of some kids who end up trapped by a religious "cult" who plan to kill them to help clean up the world. Things go sideways when one of the cult panics and shoots a deputy they suddenly find themselves in a stand off with the ATF.
Not as bad as I had heard, the film is still far from perfect, even if it shows signs of Smith's growing maturity. I mean I had heard the most terrible things about the film and was told it was the complete collapse of Kevin Smith as a filmmaker (obviously they never saw Cop Out one of the stupidest films of the last couple of years)
The problem with this film is that it seems to be made up of two separate parts. The first the story of the kids who are off hoping to get laid, kind of has the characters disappear after the first half hour. Next we have the cult/ATF story line which seems to have been messed around with due to budgetary constraints (Smith paid for the film himself and was so pressed for cash he had to change the ending). The pieces don't really go together.
The film also suffers because Smith allows some thing to go on too long. For example the preacher's speeches, while chilling and well written, go on and on. They aren't bad but I wanted to reach for the remote. because the point had been made.
This is not a bad, film, not by a long shot, but it's not as good as it should have been. Frankly this film contains some great comments and commentary (though some of the cynicism is forced and knee jerk) and it has truly creepy ending (or what would have been before budget problems forced the tagged on change). It just doesn't work completely from start to finish. Please understand that I'm picking on the film because what is good here makes me wish the whole film had been better.
Worth a look on cable.
(And you'll know why I picked the poster I did when you see the movie)
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