Once again low budget film makers have created an interesting film that rivals some major releases when it comes to creativity. The end result may not be the greatest movie ever made but at least you have a group here making an attempt at something new. With the loss of drive-ins across the country as well as double features a thing of the past, direct to DVD is the only way these independent films get made. And on occasion you get something decent.Kaya Scodelario stars as Kelly, a young girl desperately in love with boyfriend Mark. But Mark's mother isn't fond of the young girl, seeing her as someone from the wrong side of the tracks and just trying to latch on to her son. So the pair do what any young couple does, she sneaks into his bedroom at night via the second floor window. Their romance takes a dive when Kelly reveals to Mark that she is pregnant, something he's not too happy about.That night gets worse as the pair are surprised by the sound of someone in the house other than his parents. Checking things out Mark finds a group of kidnappers in the house who take him and his mother hostage and his father, a banker, to the bank as a plan to rob it. Kelly, aware of what is going on first tries to get out the window forgetting that Mark locked it the night before and has the key on him. She quickly hides beneath his bed and tries to figure out just what to do.An altercation resulted in the leader of the gang Shane (Dougray Scott) being severely wounded. He sends part of the team with the father and two men stay with him. Of course, the bed they choose to leave him in is Mark's.As the movie progresses Kelly is left to her own devices to find a way to either get help or take on this trio of bad guys before the rest of the gang returns. Rather than go the route of "Die Hard" ingenuity or Rube Goldberg contraptions, the screenwriters here have Kelly employ whatever she has on hand to her advantage. Her first feat is to get out from under the bed and make her way around the house. Then she begins to find ways to deal with the problem first hand.This would make the film a variation of the hostage turned heroine but rather than leave it at that more complex situations are brought into the mix. A secret that turns the story on its head late in the game comes off surprising but in review makes sense. The movie leaves you with an ending that's quite satisfying for all involved.Some have really ripped this movie to shreds in various reviews. For me it wasn't award winning material but it was a pleasant enough 80 minutes that was far superior to many films that are released this way. The acting of all involved was quite good, especially Scodelario as Kelly and Ed Skrein as a member of the gang with a penchant for violence. The movie won't be one that you'll remember long after seeing it but for an evening's entertainment it does a fine job.

Not really bad. Decent story that is properly paced, properly filmed with few stylish shots. Music was good at times (when it makes itself noticeable). Main bad guys weren't really that impressive but weren't terrible, neither was Kaya.. but compared to the rest of the cast (family) that was forgettable, they get to shine a bit. At least they weren't completely annoying, though her love interest was quite lacking and boring (probably because I have a thing for Kaya's face and find it a bit unforgiving).Had one really good scene that I really liked the look off (when the room explodes), where no cuts were made and seemed believable and awesome at the same time. Its kind of shocking how well the main heroine responded to everything, but it was written in a way I could accept it as it didn't go overboard. Bad guys weren't really that crazy either, which is good.** SPOILERS! BUT, it's like Kaya used up all her acting money to do a movie for herself, and be the cool superhero that gets to kill all the bad guys, survive and become rich.

Tense, well-crafted home invasion thriller that doesn't, in the end, add much to the genre and doesn't leave much of an impression once it's over. I appreciate that the screenplay by Simon Lewis reaches for some thematic resonance about characters at critical turning points in their lives without belaboring the points or becoming hackneyed, but the character development takes a back seat to the mechanics of a twisty plot that isn't as compelling as it should be. This film has both too much and too little going on. It could have been longer and I wonder if it fell victim to some overzealous pruning. Still, crisp direction by Tom Daley and a good performances all around make this an entertaining watch while it lasts. I just wish I wasn't already starting to forget that I saw it.

Although the dialogue and characters in this movie aren't bad, it's practically unwatchable due to the lack of plot, and terrible directing and editing. Here are some problems with this movie: The house has at least 10 cameras inside, but no smoke detectors or burglar alarm? There are at least 5 scenes where the heroine tries and fails to open windows throughout the house. Why? Are they locked from the outside??? In one scene she unties her boyfriend and his mother and here are their reactions: The boyfriend sits there all self satisfied, useless and relieved as if he just got done taking a huge crap. The mother decides to scream at the top of her lungs as if it never occurs to her to keep her voice down. Later in the movie the mother inexplicably has a shotgun (the shotgun was left outside in the previous scene, so how does the mother who was locked in a cupboard now have it?) In another scene the bad guy is climbing a ladder to get the heroine. The view will find himself thinking "Hit him in the head as he is climbing the ladder" but instead she just screams and cries, even though she already stabbed him with scissors twice in the previous scene. The viewer thinks she finally worked up the courage to do something smart or effective, but no. There were only about 3 good scenes in the whole movie and here are some other plot holes: The criminals don't bring any supplies but when they suddenly need a power drill it's just laying on the table. Likewise when they need gasoline they find a jug of gasoline in the boyfriends bedroom! ALMOST NO ONE KEEPS JUGS OF GASOLINE LAYING AROUND THEIR BEDROOM! There are a LOT of problems with this movie and I don't want to go on forever but perhaps the biggest one that I haven't mentioned yet is the terrible editing/sound. Every shot and every scene, even the mundane ones like an argument between mother and son, has terrible spooky sound effects and noises as if this were a roman Polanski horror film. It might not have been so bad except it's in EVERY scene. So when the bad guys actually enter the house you already want to turn the movie off because you're so annoyed. And the editing: the house has 10 security cameras and every time we are watching a scene through a security camera the image flickers and distorts while all this scary music plays. It's as if they thought they were editing "The Ring". Also, every cut, every dissolve, is done with an accompanying horrible sound effect. This isn't even a horror movie lol! I don't know what they were thinking. I do want to mention that some of the dialogue and characters are pretty good, although each bad guy inexplicably wants to tell his life story to the heroine. The first time this happens it makes sort of sense cause the guy is really stressed and just sort of talking. But in the very next scene another bad guy tells her his life story! And these stories aren't even interesting they are much like the plot of the movie: nothing happens! The director apparently did Shakespeare and other off-Broadway plays before this his feature debut. You would think the directing would be better, but I guess all those years of doing plays left him with the unquenchable thirst to add endless sound effects and editing tricks to his first movie. He should have watched Glenn Gary Glenn Ross or The Six Degrees of Separation to learn how to translate play-directing to movie-directing. But he didn't and instead produced this piece of crap movie that I can't believe I finished watching. I'd love to talk about all the plot holes and stupid things that happen in the end of the movie (like the house exploding or the fact that the fire department never comes even though they live in a rich neighborhood). In conclusion, I wouldn't let the director or editor of this movie anywhere near another film project, ever (unless it was like Hellraiser 6 or some other stupid movie where a million spooky sound effects every scene might be fitting. I had a reoccuring thought while I was watching this movie and I still don't know the answer: "Boy that scene had a lot of problems, why didn't anyone care?" Maybe the director will write an essay one day explaining how movies turn out like this.