Saw this recently on a blu-ray. Had seen the trailer n the concept of cult group n the theme of home invasion piqued my interest. Of course Kevin Greutert's name was the other good factor. The guy being an editor himself knows how to control his film's pacing and how to build suspense. Most people r comparing it to The Strangers (2008) but if u read the trivia section, the script of this film was written in 2006. The other thing is Greutert was the editor for The Strangers but the real fact is The Strangers itself was a copy of the far superior French film Them aka Ils (2006). Coming back to this film, the director managed to start the film well with the initial home invasion murders a la Halloween style n then cut back to the van kidnapping scene n the cabin in the middle of nowhere. The settings n era were good too. The 80's era was obviously to show the lack of mobile phones n a reference to the Charles Manson cult group. The mask-wearing villains were creepy, Stephen Dorff's role was very small. I really wanted some showdown between him n the villains. Some viewers may complain that it would hav been better for the family to leave the cultist son but if u notice the start scene, the cultist person do come back to slaughter his family.

I deserve a pat on my back - watched the entire movie in one go. Having said that, this is a seriously dumb movie.It is a low budget cabin in the woods kind of a flick, but instead of supernatural antagonists, what we have here are a group of men dressed as jackals - and they have absolutely no motive, no background, no character, no nothing - they are just as meaningless as the movie.The acting in the movie is okay, for a change, nothing amazing since the movie doesn't require anything amazing, but, it does seem like the cast can easily do better -> should be signing better movies. The background, cinematography are amateurish (or worse). Screenplay is non-existent. Storyline is intermittent, meaningless, flawed and boring. Character building seems to have been an absolutely no-no, since, even if every single person on screen died a horrible death, it would have absolutely zero effect on the viewer.2/10

Admittedly my expectations were low from the outset. Therefore, I was initially (the operative word here, alas) pleasantly surprised as the film capably and intriguingly set up its premise. Wayward son rescued from creepy mask-wearing death cult and taken to isolated family cabin in the woods for deprogramming by tough-talking ex-marine, divorced mum and dad, resentful older brother and girlfriend and baby daughter.Carpenters "Assault On Precinct 13" springs to mind as the cultists lay siege to the homestead and the motley troupe prepare to fight back with limited resources. I mean, if you want a classy blueprint, they don't come much classier than the classics (Rio Bravo, Night of The Living Dead, Assault on Precinct 13, Straw Dogs, etc). The set-up is a good one, the characters are portrayed by mediocre but to some extent competent actors, the script is a bit tawdry and clichéd, but what the hell, in the short term it looked primed to entertain. Until about twenty minutes in. Then it fell apart. It soon became transparently obvious where it was headed by signposting the foregone conclusion that our intrepid good guys were not going to win or put up much of a convincing fight. Why? Because there was no point, they were going to lose. The ex-marine was mind-bendingly dumb and useless, walking straight into an obvious trap that stopped his clock, making him the first to fall. What a delight he must have been in a war-zone. The brainwashed son is portrayed as almost completely beyond redemption from the outset, a fact confirmed when he bites his brainless mother in the cranium, coming away with a snarling mouthful of wig. Everyone bickers and argues about what to do next, what course of action to take. This process burns up most of the running time and provides with only a sense that here is a bunch of delusional idiots who are doomed. The result is the nullification of any suspense or any feeling there may be a smart twist to the proceedings at some point.Pop quiz. You're inside and a gang of homicidal cultists are outside wanting to get inside and slaughter you. Do you:A. Run around outside in the dark woodland, blunder about looking for help that isn't there, try (and fail) to take them on single handed with a knife on a broom handle, wander up to them unarmed and snivelling just to make it easy for them, or B. All stay inside, batten down the hatches, arm your group as best as possible and get ready to kill the living bejeezus out of anyone who tries to get inThe hapless bunch make something of a half-hearted stab at plan B, but soon reach the conclusion that plan A is the way to go. And as the audience can see the train-track trajectory after the first twenty minutes – especially if they have the most meagre familiarity with the modern horror flick - what could have been a taut and chilling little repel-the-borders home invasion thriller disintegrates hopelessly into a by-the-numbers plod to an inevitable "evil triumphs" conclusion.Some might argue that because I didn't get to see what I would have liked to see in the film I therefore didn't like the film. To some extent that is true. But it wasn't that the good guys lost as much as how they lost. They lost because the poorly conceived script made the characters dumb, mindless and irrational. If they'd gone down swinging and thinking, or thinking and swinging, then at least the outcome might have landed with some impact. As it is, what we got in the end, was jack all. Wasted potential is always a shame. This is no exception.

I just saw this movie and I'm so upset about it that I had to create account just so I can write review. It is simple: "Do not watch". I can't remember that I ever saw movie so pointless, without any common sense. Characters are so lame that it makes you cheer for almost equally lame enemies. Movie tries to give you some kind of disturbing atmosphere, but only it does is that it annoys you. I don't blame actors, not even scenarist or director. I just blame producers. Whoever said "Let's film it" is either doing some kind of money laundry scheme or is just... well...I'll stop here, I don't have words polite enough.