I was expecting a lot from NAILBITER after the first five minutes. After all, in those five minutes I found out it was a well-shot and initially engaging film, one that took the time to develop character and situation unlike so many these days. I was hoping for something better than the usual run-of-the-mill horror guff.Unfortunately after just a handful of minutes NAILBITER gets significantly worse when the main characters find themselves holed up in a cellar to escape from an approaching tornado. After this point, they're trapped in the cellar FOR THE ENTIRE RUNNING TIME. In the dark. There's a mutant monster on the loose, yes, but he's barely glimpsed and seems incidental to the main storyline, which is just about those women sitting around in the cellar and complaining. Of course, there's time for a ridiculously over the top ending along the way.The film is very underwhelming for the genre. None of the cast are familiar and none of them give very good performances; none of the protagonists are likable either. Bloodshed is kept to a minimum, and the horror itself is limited to those dumb jump scares that work for very few people these days. In other words, there's virtually no reason to watch this.

Janet McGuire (McGrane) is a recovering alcoholic and is excited to get her Husband (Aaron Laue) back from the war. She is on the way to pick him up at the airport with her three daughters when a tornado warning hits. Janet realizes they aren't going to make it and takes refuge at the first country home she comes to. Seeing a storm cellar she rushes her family into it and waits for the storm to pass. Before they know it the four of them are boarded up and blocked into the cellar by the house inhabitants, which some of them may or may not be human. The family is terrorized in the cellar as they try to survive. This movie has a creepy set up and promises to be a great monster flick. However, this original set up never comes full circle. Writer/Director Patrick Rea keeps the creatures hidden for a good chuck of the running time and the audience sits around waiting for something to happen. The character build up is nice and we care about the family but Rea could have upped the creepy factor considerably and still kept his creatures hidden for the most part by showing glimpses and flashes of them. Well made and acted with a unique story this could have been special but ends up being a bit of a let down due to its potential.

I really thought this movie had a chance. Good idea, bad execution. So, the acting was... I just don't have an adverb that adequately describes how bad it was. The supporting actors were especially stiff and unbelievable. There was no chemistry at all between... you know what? Never mind. It was just bad. The youngest sister was unconscious for most of the movie and it was still crappy acting. I didn't even know it was possible to poorly act unconscious. Baby Jesus in heaven! And the whole movie is just "The Hills Have Eyes"/any-werewolf-movie, but in a storm cellar. The "action" sequences were laughable. Wait, you'll like this! I swear to God, there's a part where one sister throws the other sister a gun and the slow-motion catch is an honest-to-God "6 million dollar man" ripoff. But baaaaaaaaaad. Just baaaaaaaaaad.shakes his head and walks away

I thoroughly enjoyed this aptly named movie. After a slightly slow opening, the movie picks up and pulses with tension. It builds a story, gives us real characters, and features several goosebumps moments - meaning I got them watching it - no reference to any kid stuff horror - this is grown up scary stuff, so buckle up, buttercup! Beautifully shot by Rea's frequent collaborator Hanuman Brown-Eagle, this looks very sharp - from the gorgeous aerial shots that add copious production value through to the intense and artful lighting effects in the basement scenes, this movie looks amazing. The acting is not bad at all, with McGrane and Saricks standing out - which is good as they have the bulk of the dramatics on their plates. The other daughters bring a lot of enthusiasm to their roles, and handle them just fine. The supporting cast is good as well. There's not a lot of humor in the movie, as this is a mostly dark toned feature, but that works, as snarky humor too often gets out of hand in a movie like this. The CGI visual effects are well handled, maximizing the storm scenes without drawing very much attention to the fact that there is CGI going on by staying brief and quickly edited. Even better are the practical effects, with truly wicked looking creatures that take their time showing themselves, but make it worth the wait when they do appear. The film's not a gorefest - but has violent moments that will make you cringe. Every department handles their assigned tasks with talent and aplomb, and it is all marshaled to the screen by the fine direction of Patrick Rea. It is a low budget independent movie, so there are points where the budget is strained, or a performance might hit a rough patch, but once again Rea and his producing partners have worked wonders with the money they had and turned out a feature that I definitely recommend