Julia Lund (Laura Regan) is a bright young Master of Psychology student who is about to finish her thesis. She encounters a childhood friend who is in a desperate state—he needs her help. She, unwilling to believe his improbable story of running from light-fearing body-snatchers, refuses to help him. He, realising this, blows his brains out in a diner. Whilst trying to deal with this traumatic event, Julia’s childhood ‘night terrors’ incrementally return to haunt her sanity. 

Her boyfriend Paul (Marc Blucas) tries to comfort her, but his efforts become all too inadequate as she descends into paranoia and terror. It is difficult to say whether this horror film is ‘psychological’ or ‘supernatural’: as it deals with schizophrenia, in an ironic way, it tries to about both. And only by structurally splitting itself in two (there is an ‘alternate ending’) can it hope to fulfil this ambitious (but necessary?) goal. Of course, it fails—all the viewer can do is choose one of the two alternatives which best satisfy his or her sense of what good story-telling should be. 

Like so many mediocre films of this genre, the dedicated viewer is left with only two channels of interest: the technical aspects, especially cinematography or special FX and nudity/sexual innuendo. They unfortunately only delivers on cinematography. Many of the shots are quite taut and engrossing, having a painterly quality. The filmmakers are disappointingly prudish, allowing only a pseudo-clinical exhibition of the young-actors’ obviously photogenic bodies. This being the case, I was left with one eye on the DVD timer, counting down the minutes… 

The disc has audio in both Dolby 2.0 and Dolby 5.1, as well as subtitles in English. The special features include the alternate ending, as well as a trailer for the film. This is probably of interest to horror fans, but to the general viewer, there are many better things (horror or otherwise) to spend your money on!

Felix Staica