11-11-11

What Do You Believe In?

One cannot help but to poke at its glaring loopholes, such as the demons in the film that were more posers than can actually scare the living daylights out of anyone - the audience or the characters in the film. Director Darren Lynn Bousman, who had cut his teeth in a few movies of the Saw franchise, has to realize that subtlety isn't one of his strengths, and for a film like 11-11-11 that relies on the build up of suspense and anticipation, this one falls flat most of the times, with its jump scares being more funny than effectively scary.

But maybe this is not meant to be a horror film, but a cautionary tale about the potential falsehoods of religion or its interpretation, of how some can really be wolves in sheeps clothing. It made some very compelling arguments and statements since it involved the different idealogies between two key characters in brothers Joseph (Timothy Gibbs) and Samuel (Michael Landes), one already having denounced religion, while the other a preacher, each presenting their side of the argument. But its execution and delivery had let down its intent and potential, and the narrative by director Bousman was beating about the bush most of the time, trying to expand what would essentially be short film material with scenes that don't mean much other than to add red herrings to the plot.

Being set in the Spanish city of Barcelona, it had tried to be stylish with is Euro-chic look and strained palette of colours, but had its production values to thank for with its bad makeup and cheap costumes getting in the way of proper ghoulish designs, with demons being nothing more than men in rubber masks and cutting cheap cloth for "bat-wings". Character development, not that one will expect any, is firmly zilch, with almost every actor speaking their lines without much conviction, nor trying to be convincing.

One can see the promise of the film when it pared down its unnecessary excess fat and got down to basics, but unfortunately 11-11-11 became nothing more than a sad gimmick and a hack attempt at creating sometihng mysterious around the date that comes about once a century. That had no relation whatsoever with the main storyline, being a plot device and element of convenience instead.

You can read my review of 11-11-11 at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.