"Ever see what happened to those poor Japanese bastards after we dropped Little Boy on Nagasaki? The skin melting off their bones. Faces like... Roadkill. Lucky ones died in the blast. And those kids in Chernobyl - Eyes and... Ears. Shit growing all over 'em. Tumors the size of grapefruits popping out of their necks."
Micky.
Pace; 0/2
Acting; 2/2
Aesthetic; 1/2
Originality & Intention; 1/2
Final Score; 4/10
Final Word; A film with a terminally low opinion of
humanity, whose only reason for existing seems to hammer that view home to its
audience. Nothing wrong with hitting your viewers hard, but this doesn't really
have anything to say. Instead, it feels more like the intentionally dour
outlook of a grungy teenager who thinks he knows the fucking lot: this pretends
to be a deep and damning indictment of the human condition but in reality it’s
a very shallow and immature world view.
Perhaps even worse than that; it's staggeringly dull after
an initially interesting set-up, and fails to tie-up any (any!) of its
plot-related issues. Seriously. I'm not giving much away when I tell you the
plot revolves around a group of survivers seeking shelter from nuclear fallout
in the basment of an apartment block. Act one ends when a group of
military-types in rad-suits invade the basment and abduct the child. Soon
after, we discover the child has been dissected for what one can only assume to
be some vile experiment. Do we ever find out who these people are? No. Why they
took, and subsequently mutilated, the little girl? No. Is it even relevant to
what follows in the next 2 hours? No. Instead, the survivors find themself sealed
in the basement, whereby they all eventually surrender to violence, depravity,
rape and murder.
Some interesting and naturalistic performances (especially from Michael Biehn, who's so good he's almost worth enduring the film for, but not quite) can't save this rather dull and pompous effort.
