SIMON REAMES, FILM REVIEW, 11-11-11

11-11-11 Review

From director Darren Lynn Bousman; the director of Saw II, III and IV; I was expecting his latest film to be on a similar line as his previous films with masses of shock, gore and images of people getting their deserved or undeserved comeuppance in plenitude. It was a welcome surprise to find that was about as far from expectations as possible. Unfortunately, that was where the surprises stopped.

The basic premise of the film is that Joseph Crone (our ‘hero’ Timothy Gibbs) is mourning the death of his wife and child when he starts to discover that ‘strange’ things are happening to him in conjuncture with the numbers 11-11. At the same time as discovering this he is called back to Barcelona from America to be with his dying and estranged father and religious brother. As you would expect, these ‘strange’ occurrences continue to plague him as the date 11-11-(20)11 gets closer.

At the start you do wonder what the title has to do with the film and as it progresses, there is a tiny bit of interest to find out exactly what happens. While watching the film you cannot but help see that this is a lacklustre effort that looks to be cobbled together quickly. Although the original story is intriguing, it is let down by poor acting, basic special effects, predictable and droning dialogue and some suspect editing (continuity does not appear to be important in some scenes).

While trying to keep within the horror genre, the film tries to keep you on the back foot by only knowing what the main character knows (which is not much to be fair) and there are plenty of night scenes with shadowy figures and some attempts to make you jump but all fail to hit their intended marks. As the story progresses, you immediately know that there is going to be a surprise twist ending but this becomes evident halfway through and you just end up waiting to see how right you were.

It is a shame as the film has an interesting and somewhat original plot at its centre; it just struggles to come through. Apart from noticing the glaringly obvious continuity errors, 11-11-11 plods on and you start losing interest in what could’ve been a different and enjoyable film.

4/10