Search - Elsewhere [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

A Tense, Suspenseful Missing-Person Drama

The Movie Man | Maywood, New Jersey USA | 07/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Elsewhere" focuses on long-time best friends Sarah (Anna Kendrick) and Jillian (Tania Raymonde). Though both grew up in the same small Indiana town, the two girls are total opposites. Sarah is a topnotch student and athlete, while Jillian is an underachieving troublemaker. Both girls want desperately to break free from boring small-town life, but Sarah is shocked to discover that Jillian has started meeting anonymous men through the Internet in order to find someone who will show her some excitement. Soon after this revelation, Jillian disappears, leaving behind only her journal and a video message sent from her cell phone. Determined to find her friend, Sarah enlists the aid of Jasper (Jon Gries), resident computer genius, who secretly has a crush on her. Their search, however, leads them to discover why no one wants Jillian found.
"Elsewhere" has elements of assorted thrillers in which innocents get involved in circumstances way above their heads. As the film progresses, suspense heightens and there are a few good scare moments. Ms. Kendrick does a competent job. You believe her as bright, level-headed, and thoughtful, and she does convey that all-important thriller movie ingredient -- escalating fear. Bonus features include deleted scenes, photo gallery, director and producer audio commentary, and a making-of featurette."

It's entertaining, but also cliche-ridden

z hayes | TX | 06/10/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Don't get me wrong, I actually liked this movie though it brought nothing new to the table. The weakness of this movie lies in its resorting to the usual cliches inherent in the genre, but it's strength lies in the credible acting and the well-paced plot.

The story centers on Sarah [Anna Kendrick who played a bit role in Twilight as Bella's classmate], an average teen who works part-time in a diner. Her best friend Jillian [Tania Raymonde from Lost] is a sort of wild teen vamp who comes from a white trash background. Jillian is addicted to meeting men online with a provocative moniker "Dirtygurrl". When Jillian goes missing, Sarah tries to convince the local sleazy cop that something is wrong, all to no avail. No one seems to care about a girl that has been courting trouble for a long time, and it is left to Sarah, and her computer geek friend Jasper to figure out what really happened. Along the way, they have to deal with some teen bullies, a rather mysterious father-daughter pair, and a woman who has been tagged the town loony [her daughter disappeared years ago but she still puts up posters of the missing girl all around town], and of course exploring the world of online dating.

Compared to some rather lackluster teen offerings lately such as "Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour" and "The Haunting of Molly Hartley", this is actually a pretty decent thriller with credible acting by the leads. The one thing I didn't care for were the cliches peppered throughout the movie [such as some scenes that reminded me of earlier teen classics like "Scream" etc], and some incongruencies [finding the weeks' long missing teen's cellphone still charged???], but other than that, I would rate this movie an entertaining flick for it's genre. It had some genuine moments of suspense that had me cringing in parts. There is no nudity or gore here.

The DVD comes with extras such as movie trailer [I think this was a direct-to-DVD release], 22 mins of deleted scenes, a making-of feature, a photo gallery, and a director's commentary."

A gripping saga highly recommended for teen to adult viewers

Midwest Book Review | Oregon, WI USA | 10/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Teens seeking suspense and many an adult viewer looking for something different will find the movie ELSEWHERE an avid show. Sarah and Jillian have been long-time best friends although very different. Sarah is shocked to find her friend has started meeting anonymous men over the internet in search of excitement - and when Jillian vanishes, she and her friend search for their missing friend and the reason why nobody in town seems to want her found. Deleted scenes, audio commentary with the film's director and producer, and a featurette enhance a gripping saga highly recommended for teen to adult viewers."

Interesting Mystery with a Touch of Horror

Silmarwen | Huntington Beach, CA United States | 05/25/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This movie was better than I expected, but only because it preyed on my fears of what teenagers really do when their parents aren't around! All of the teens in the film fit a specific cliche: earnest, hardworking, responsible Sarah (Anna Kendrick); class slut and wild child Jillian (Tania Raymonde); nerdy, earnest and cute Jasper (Chuck Carter); jerky jock Billy (Paul Wesley); timid, devout Darla (Olivia Dawn York); and every other archetype found in high school movies. While no one is a standout, the teen cast was able to fill their roles convincingly. The music in the movie is geared towards a teen crowd, but I really liked the song choices (mostly rock and punk). The last track played during the closing credits was very well chosen/written and kind of summed up the whole film in a song.

The creepiest thing about this movie is the fact that the plot is actually really believable. Teenage girls have been going missing in a small town for years, but no one is looking for them. All of the girls were poor and went a little crazy with alcohol, boys, drugs or any combination of wild behavior. Only the town drunk and crazy woman (who is the mother of one of the missing girls, but didn't notice her daughter was missing for 3 years because she was too drunk) even notices a pattern emerging. When Jillian goes missing, Sarah makes it her mission to find out what happened to her. When Jasper asks Sarah why she keeps looking, Sarah's response is pretty chilling. She says that if most of us went missing, our parents would be looking for us, our siblings would be looking, the police would be looking and more. But Sarah is the only one looking for Jillian. Jillian is one of those girls who falls through the cracks. Everyone assumes that she finally got tired of living in a small town and ran away from home. The police won't start a search without a parent requesting it, and Jillian's mom is too drugged up and messed up to even make the trip to town. Sadly, this is true in our society today. There are a lot of young girls and boys who go missing and are never really looked for or no one even notices that they are gone. This is what gave the story its chill factor for me.

So the plot is pretty believable and the details are pretty scary. Sarah's mom is involved in a big case at work and really doesn't know anything about her daughter's life. Jillian's mom doesn't care about her daughter so long as she brings home the money she earns working part time at the cafe. These girls are learning about boys, having sex, drinking at parties, and Jillian has a web page where she is known as "dirty girl" with explicit photos to match. It is really sad to see that no one cares about her and that she is allowed to run wild and do things that she probably would have regretted if she had the chance to grow old. The policeman that Sarah has interactions with is corrupt and threatens Sarah both physically and verbally if Sarah doesn't stop investigating Jillian's disappearance. The whole town doesn't even really notice and or care that Jillian is gone.

The only down side to the story is that it was pretty easy to figure out who was kidnapping and killing the girls. Since Sarah did not have any police support, though, she had to connect the dots for herself and find the proof to go along with it, which took her a while. The last 10 minutes or so were pretty creepy and intense as Sarah and Jasper confront the killer. This is a decent thriller, nothing special or noteworthy, but a good movie to watch around Halloween time or just on a night when you feel like scaring yourself a bit."