(This review may contain spoilers).
I remember watching this film quite a while ago. Watching it with a friend who can’t see was a bit challenging, though.
It was interesting to see an earlier ‘found footage’ movie. I thought it was a good way to have Alice connect with the people who lived in the house previously.
This film id seem to come across as quite low-key. The location didn’t really move, outside of Alice being in first one house and then the other. In a way, the more simple nature of the film worked, since it gave the opportunity to get to know Alice more as the film went on.
I liked the way that Alice’s history unfolded through the course of the movie. It was good that the viewer wasn’t hit with all of the information all at once. And I did feel a lot of sympathy for her.
There were a few creepy scenes in this, but I felt that it did rely too much on jump scares. There were a couple of nice moments with camera angles… and another scene where Alice (and myself as a viewer) was so caught up in watching Lucy and David, she had to check behind her at the same time Lucy did.
I would have liked the opportunity to see Alice interact with other people. She came across as quite ethereal… almost a ghost herself.
Although I know that atmosphere is important in a horror movie, the amount of darkness made it hard to see what was going on… harder still to audio describe. And the speaking was far too quiet. Even with the volume turned all the way up, most of it was too quiet to make out.
Brittany Murphy did do a good performance in this and I felt that Thora Birch was good as Lucy, too. It was interesting to see the way that David and Lucy’s relationship changed so much.
I was quite disappointed in the ending, I have to say. I think it could have been done a whole lot better. I did find the film entertaining to watch, though, and my friend did like it too.
Ink of Blood 