When this movie came out, I remember being horrified by it in a way that a lot of horror movies hadn’t. It unsettled me, shook me. I hated it. It wasn’t very gorey. It wasn’t as violent as the Saw movies. In fact, the plot of this movie could really be described as “Liv Tyler screams for 80 minutes.” So why was this so affecting?

I think this movie showed violence in a senseless, nihilistic way that I hadn’t seen before. It was bleak, and it’s a movie that doesn’t glamorize the violence or make the killers into joking cartoons, superpowered behemoths, or even surprise plot twists that reveal Jigsaw-esque master-planning. It’s just a quick, ugly movie, albeit with very nice cinematography that somehow feels very of its time while also calling back to 70s exploitation films.

Seeing it again 10 years later, there was something enjoyable about the bleak, frank message that I couldn’t stomach when I was a 19 year old pup. It was slow, deliberately paced, and a little quaint given jow much the horror genre changed over time.

Not a fun movie, not something I’ll own or watch often, but it was okay.