This is awful. I get the sense that the director made this movie in an attempt to get his foot in the door to work on B-movies in Hollywood--and not very effectively at that. Surely he could see and sense the terrible acting taking place as he was directing; then I imagine him just ignoring it and focusing on just finishing the movie.<br /><br />Some people comment that the characters aren't acting, that it doesn't feel scripted, and that it seems more realistic this way: however, this is not the case. The actors do not seem to be improvising to make it 'realistic'--they appear to be standing around not knowing where to move, what to say, getting in each other's way, etc. The little girl and boy are the worst, especially the girl. Half of the time, you can't understand what is being said because the characters chime in and say random things that drown out what someone else is saying, or the microphone doesn't pick them up. (This movie would apparently be the only movie Tim Boggs ever directed, but he did go on to work in the industry for some notable movies).<br /><br />The baddie of this movie is some undeveloped old man character. Later on in the movie, we learn that his motive for going on a killing spree is because he never received payment for the house those teenagers are staying in from one of their father's. What kind of half-assed excuse is that? It comes to us late in the movie in one or two lines of dialogue exchange.<br /><br />The editing is a travesty as well. Although it might be understandable given the format and the low budget, it still is quite bad. Cutting between different angles in any given scene is awkward: common occurrences are changed lighting, continuity errors, and general disorientation. Some of the shots in the movie are completely without meaning and seem to be primarily self-indulgent shots. Constant cutting to the moon, or shots of ducks swimming in the lake, leave you scratching, clawing for some meaning. But there really is none. One scene involves them playing a drinking game. The same shot is held for what seems forever, throwing in the occasional time-lapse effect, drawing the scene out much too long. And don't even get me started on the ending sequence..<br /><br />During half of the movie, the characters are moving around in the dark. The movie was shot on some sort of video format, but not a home camcorder, mind you, so you know that issues of lighting will crop up. And they do. And it's annoying trying to make out what's going on. But then you remember that you don't really care. The least they could've done was to use flashlights or lanterns during the ext. night scenes.<br /><br />The "original" soundtrack uses the annoying, cliche, synthesized, "tension" note, accompanied by rehashed piano tracks. There are a few rock n' roll vocal tracks, but nothing special.<br /><br />This movie was so bad, in fact, it drove my friend to perform the terrible act of biting into an onion like it was an apple. Boy did he regret that, whining for hours. TEMPORARY INSANITY. To make a long story not too short, this movie can be watched, but you have to come into it with a certain mindframe. Once you see the format the movie was shot on, you want to find out just what they could possibly achieve with it...