The Anniversary at Shallow Creek (2011)

PLOT:
A group of six (boring) college students go off for a vacation in the middle of nowhere (of course)...where a sniper waits to kill them all off one-by-one.

REVIEW:
I hate to rip on a movie, where the cast and crew obviously put a lot of heart into it...but "The Anniversary at Shallow Creek" just wasn't very good. It wasn't the worst movie ever...but it had MANY issues. Good: I like the premise and the main girl was the best actress and was cute too boot. She was actually a likable-enough character. Two of the guys were cute. The last 20 or so minutes actually rocked, brought up some strong themes, and had some potent suspense. The film's look wasn't bad and really came to life in the end. Also when the killer begins to talk, he/she has a pretty creepy voice that REALLY worked for the role.

I have a lot to say...and now onto the bad. I really do feel bad because the film had some good things going on and the cast/crew REALLY put there all into this film...so where did they go wrong? On a technical level, the lighting was terrible! When it was dark, I couldn't see a damn thing going on. I even played around with the lighting on my computer...but no dice. Also that musical score didn't leave much of an impression. It was generic. Not bad, but not good - just like the film, so I guess it suited it. The acting, was...on and off. The main actress was pretty good, and the killer has a creepy voice. But other than the main actress every other actor was pretty amateur.

My biggest gripe would be the script. The characters were mostly annoying...and suspense was REALLY lacking from most of the flick. It didn't kick in until the final twenty or so minutes when a choice had to be made. That is all I will say. But the characters were just...damn, I didn't give a damn about most of these people. The main two characters were likable. I'm not asking for tons of character development but at least give me some likable characters.

Should I mention the dialogue? Well I started to. The dialogue was pretty putrid in places. They just didn't feel like real people. Example, when a character is introduced: TWO people make comments about how he isn't studying for a change within two minutes. Ummm...that is quite some dialogue there? How about showing us rather than telling us. This doesn't count as character development. Plus to add one final injury, that opening scene was TACKY as hell with bad acting, dialogue, and everything was just done so badly. The terrible editing didn't help this film.

Overall, I really REALLY wanted to like this film, but sadly it just wasn't very good.

VERDICT: 4/10.