plot : two teen couples go to a church party , drink and then drive . they get into an accident . one of the guys dies , but his girlfriend continues to see him in her life , and has nightmares . <NEG> what's the deal ? </NEG> watch the movie and " sorta " find out . . . critique : a <NEG> mind-fuck movie </NEG> for the teen generation that touches on a very cool idea , but presents it in <NEG> a very bad package </NEG> . which is what makes this review an even harder one to write , since i generally applaud films which attempt to break the mold , mess with your head and such ( lost highway & memento ) , but there are good and bad ways of making all types of films , and these folks <NEG> just didn't snag this one correctly </NEG> . they seem to have taken this pretty neat concept , but <NEG> executed it terribly </NEG> . so what are the problems with the movie ? well , its main problem is that <NEG> it's simply too jumbled </NEG> . it starts off " normal " but then <NEG> downshifts into this " fantasy " world </NEG> in which you , as an audience member , <NEG> have no idea what's going on </NEG> . there are dreams , there are characters coming back from the dead , there are others who look like the dead , there are strange apparitions , there are disappearances , there are a looooot of chase scenes , there are tons of weird things that happen , and most of it is simply not explained . now i personally don't mind trying to unravel a film every now and then , but when all it does is give me the same clue over and over again , <NEG> i get kind of fed up after a while </NEG> , which is this film's biggest problem . it's obviously got this big secret to hide , but it seems to want to hide it completely until its final five minutes . and do they make things entertaining , thrilling or even engaging , in the meantime ? <NEG> not really </NEG> . <NEG> the sad part is </NEG> that the arrow and i both dig on flicks like this , so we actually figured most of it out by the half-way point , so all of the strangeness after that did start to make a little bit of sense , but it still didn't the make the film all that more entertaining . i guess the bottom line with movies like this is that you should always make sure that the audience is " into it " even before they are given the secret password to enter your world of understanding . i mean , showing melissa sagemiller running away from visions for about 20 minutes throughout the movie is just plain lazy ! ! okay , we get it . . . there are people chasing her and we don't know who they are . <NEG> do we really need to see it over and over again ? </NEG> how about giving us different scenes offering further insight into all of the strangeness going down in the movie ? apparently , the studio took this film away from its director and chopped it up themselves , and it shows . there might've been a pretty decent teen mind-fuck movie in here somewhere , but i guess " the suits " decided that turning it into a music video with little edge , would make more sense . the actors are pretty good for the most part , although wes bentley just seemed to be playing the exact same character that he did in american beauty , only in a new neighborhood . but my biggest kudos go out to sagemiller , who holds her own throughout the entire film , and actually has you feeling her character's unraveling . overall , <NEG> the film doesn't stick </NEG> because <NEG> it doesn't entertain , it's confusing , it rarely excites </NEG> and it feels <NEG> pretty redundant </NEG> for most of its runtime , despite a pretty cool ending and explanation to all of the craziness that came before it . oh , and by the way , this is not a horror or teen slasher flick . . . it's just packaged to look that way because someone is apparently assuming that the genre is still hot with the kids . it also wrapped production two years ago and has been sitting on the shelves ever since . whatever . . . <NEG> skip it ! </NEG> where's joblo coming from ? a nightmare of elm street 3 ( 7/10 ) - blair witch 2 ( 7/10 ) - the crow ( 9/10 ) - the crow : salvation ( 4/10 ) - lost highway ( 10/10 ) - memento ( 10/10 ) - the others ( 9/10 ) - stir of echoes ( 8/10 )
