5/5 A quality and geniuely scary thriller!
  by John Lindsey (Socorro, New Mexico USA.)


David (Luke Wilson) and Amy (Kate Beckinsale) are a married couple in need of a place to stay as they are in the middle of nowhere. They stumble to a motel where they think they feel safe and more confortable as they have a TV with VCR to entertain them, but the videos shown are low budget slasher movies that actually are murder films. There's a secret about the motel that the owners are actually murderers who create snuff films for their pleasure, now David and Amy must find a way to escaped the motel from hell.

Intense and riviting psychological horror thriller from director Nimrod Antal and writer Mark L. Smith is a fun and very Alfred Hitchock-like suspenser. This one differs from the recent glut of torture flicks as it does focus on the plot and characterizations much like the original "SAW" movie but more to "Psycho" and 1980's underrated "Motel Hell". The film co-stars Ethan Embry and Frank Waley, it's a go-for-the-throat thriller that harkens back to the good old fashion psychological thriller days with suspense and twists.

This Blu-Ray gives a wonderful theatrical quality transfer on the image and terrific sound with a few extras like extended snuff films, featurette and deleted scenes.

3/5 very vacant in the shock department
  by D. Gorman "Crystalline Structure Moon"
how many times, hollywood?? when you advertise a flick like this based primarily on its shock value, you have to deliver some of the shock value you advertise! everybody knows the Saw movies started the recent influx and deluge of shock movies of this genre...but so many of the recent Saw rip-offs fail to even try to give up the torture and gruesome brutality that the original portrays so eloquently. this flick is such a blatant Hostel rip-off..all in the same vein as Saw...it advertises shock in the premise of a young couple getting caught in a hotel where people are making snuff films...you expect to see some of the snuff film stuff going on, and the movie just doesn't give it up! the couple sees a few momentary glimpses of a snuff film, then they spend the last hour and 15 minutes of the film trying to escape...with no torture, very little brutality...nothing but running away! kate beckinsale is a beautiful actress who does a good job at delivering the script she is given...luke wilson (who i most remember as his role as casey kelso in 'that 70s show') does a good job at giving us the role he is given...the couple is having problems, which is adequately portrayed in the opening 20 minutes of the flick...but ultimately, this is just a film about an innocent couple running away from a couple of jerks...with almost no shock value! luckily, this disc offers the extra feature of 10 minutes of the snuff film the couple was watching in their hotel room...a nice bonus feature on the dvd, but not enough to bump this dvd above the 3-star rating the flick deserves on its own merit...especially since the snuff film shots are seriously inadequate. if you like movies about innocent couples running away from jerks, you might rate this movie more highly than i did. there is some nice action and tension. like i said, it's not a bad action, drama flick...but i was looking for more. i wanted shock, torture and something that took me outside the box. this movie fails to deliver...it fails to deliver in a number of ways. sorry, but better luck next time.


3/5 4 Stars for Film, 0 Stars for Extended Snuff Films Feature
  by Noir Man (Bay Area, CA United States)
The film has the effective "creep" factor, impressive lighting and cinematography, and the great performance by Frank Whaley! The fact that it takes place on a rural byway at night preys upon one's innocence and vulnerabilities...effective suspense.

That said, the fact that there is a short "video" of "Mason's Video Picks: Extended Snuff Films" with NO apparent reason, i.e. discussing the psyche of those involved in snuff films OR any criminal's rehabilitation from such a crime OR the screenwriter's/director's thoughts on making a film involving said content....well, it is absolutely revolting!!! What is the point?? To JUST entertain! It is like watching a Special Features section from a movie involving a serial killer and it just being a video collage of murder after murder and that's it! Don't get me wrong: if it was peppered with humor as a Gag Reel or used as a Trailer that is COMPLETELY different. Context is everything: the snuff scenes in the movie are not gratuitous and shape the plot. Now I'm left wondering if the writer/director/producers are sick-in-the-head. WoW. That special feature isn't "special" at all....rather, disgusting.

5/5 Terrific Terror!
  by Kevin Hunter (Los Angeles, CA)
This is one of the better thriller/horror films that came out around this time. So many of the other scary films that came out were either about chopping up and guts for the sake of entertainment, or following some boring formula. This ones thrives on it's leading characters, ordinary people, just like everyone else who moment by moment begin to realize they're in trouble. And their lies the terror. We know these people have seen a horror film and act just like any of us would act had we'd been stuck in their situation. There is a Hitchcock feel with the building of the characters first before the horror.

4/5 Not the Best, but check out the Extra Features
  by Eric Hofmann (San Diego, CA USA)
Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale fail to dazzle as the Foxes, a troubled couple who find their way to a backwoods California Motel. They find quickly that this motel is the setting for a horror movie! [gasp!]

The movie moves along pretty well for only having five principal characters and takes place predominantly in one close area, the cinematography is decent, the background score in decent horror movie stuff and Frank Whaley, playing Mason the Motel Manager, manages to make a good horror movie anti-hero.

This movie lacks real insight into the circumstance of humanity or the characters, but throws a nice net of uncertainty on the whole situation which adds to the alleged horror value, but gives the movie a lack of credibility. Ultimately, what more did we know about Jason Voorhies' mother after Friday the 13th? Not that much. Maybe we expect more out of horror movies than we used to, maybe we're conditioned to be disappointed by them if the lack a lot of gore or a lot of insight.

Either way, the movie holds water as well as the back screen door.

That being said, the price of the movie is worth the special features, notably Mason's Extended Snuff films. Only about 10 minutes in length, its a great, free-based snuff film gorging. Worth the price of the DVD by itself. It might be the best series of snuff shorts I've seen, in fact. Check it out.