Reeker

REEKER (2005) - May 10, 2007 (S)
Hmmm... That wasn't so good. It started out well enough -- it had a pretty generic setup (a bunch of teens get stuck in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down) but did a reasonably good job of building tension. The tension builds, but then... nothing happens for a while. And then when stuff does start to happen, the director makes the odd choice of not showing the villain at all, and making it look like people are getting killed my a menacing cloud of gas. Finally, more than an hour in, we get to actually see the bad guy, but it's sort of too late by then. And then there's the twist ending, which sort of made sense but seemed more like a twist for the sake of having a twist. The film was essentially well made, but was undone by the absence of a compelling villain, and a lengthy mid-section in which not much happens. **