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You Can't Look Away

Sara | United States | 04/25/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For one thing, this must have been one of Brittany Murphy's last movies (and in knowing that, she appears to be very ill.) There is a memorable scene where she looks through a glass door and pauses for a moment in closing it, and there is just this very final, haunting look on her face. If you like spooky, morbid, suspenseful thrillers that are more about making you jump than grossing you out with blood and gore, you will love this movie! An author, Alice goes to stay at an old house for one week to write. Her friend, Rebecca drives Alice to the house and takes the car back with her. Later, Rebecca lets Alice know that her violent ex-boyfriend, Ben is out of jail and may be looking for her. Alice begins hearing noises in the house and comes across some videotapes in the attic of a disturbed couple (Lucy and David.) She becomes absorbed in their story. When she finds the last tape and Rebecca tells her that Lucy and David were never found and are considered missing, Alice suddenly realizes that one of them could be in the house. The ending is a bunch of twists and turns that are open to interpretation. Is this all in Alice's mind or did someone (other than Ben) try to kill her? Lucy's story and Alice's parallel each other so closely. Did Alice just create the very real characters of David and Lucy for her next novel? Rebecca and the audience are left wondering. This type of movie reminded me a lot of What Lies Beneath. But the ending is more in the style of Alfred Hitchcock. The background music is exceptional and really pulls you into the story."

Decent but Flawed

Alexander Stephen Brown | Vicksburg, ms United States | 04/15/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I didn't go into this movie expecting much considering the cover and it seemed the same as a million other ghost movies I have seen in the past 10 years. Throughout viewing this movie I was dissappointed and entralled.

Brittany Murphy plays as a screenwriter who has just moved into a creepy, old mansion to complete her new script. The movie is filled with odd sounds and bumps in the night, which was glorified in the original Shirley Jackson classic, "The Haunting".

About less than midway in the film Murphy finds a collection of home videos of the previous owners. Of course she watches her find and becomes obsessed. On tape is the documentation of a disgruntled married couple, played by Thora Birch and Marc Blucas. Quickly, she discovers there are frightening similarities between Thora and herself. Brittany discovers later that Thora is murdered and her ghost still haunts the estate.

At first, this movie moves like an Asian horror film, its creepy and almost poetic with its style, however, theres only one problem. There is a scene where Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is playing, Murphy follows the music and sees dead Thora Birch playing the piano, instead of Birch slowly turning to face Murphy the scene becomes loud and obnoxious with poor cgi effects. The result was a cheap scare that lacked a jump. In this one specific scene I have listed two facts that annoyed me. 1. The director went for a poor scare tactic vs. the ghost slowly turning and facing Murphy. 2. PLEASE FORGET CGI WHEN SOMETHING IS SIMPLE *as in Thora's deathly makeup* BE CREATIVE AND USE OLD SCHOOL EFECTS! If Dick Smith could shock millions with makeup and latex what is stopping Hollywood now?

Instead of giving up on the movie, I watched it till the end and the twist was redeeming. I snagged this in the $5 bend at Walmart and feel it was worth that amount of money. This movie is rated R, which I believe is a bogus rating, this is clearly no worse than a PG-13 rated film. This movie is without gore or any major or minor scare factors, but it is an interesting watch. Out of a scale of 1 to 10, I rate it a 6 1/2. The only thing that prevented the movie from reaching a higher number is the Moonlight Sonata scene that frustrated me.
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