Tags:
Film: Enter Nowhere
Year: 2011
Director: Jack Heller
Writer: Shawn Christensen and Jason Dolan
Starring: Katherine Waterston, Scott Eastwood and Sara Paxton
Review:
This was a film that I remember seeing the case when it came out while working at Family Video. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a horror movie, but I think that it is close enough to the genre that I’m writing this review. The synopsis is three strangers arrive one by one at a mysterious cabin in the middle of nowhere only to learn they’ve been brought together for a reason.
We start this with a couple of Kevin (Christopher Denham) and Jody (Sara Paxton) as they go to a gas station. They go in and try to rob it. The attendant, Jesse Perez, says something to Jody when she wants to get into the safe. Everything then goes white.
It then shows us Samantha (Katherine Waterston) as she is walking through the woods. She is struggling and she comes to a shed. She goes inside and finds some food. She is interrupted by Tom (Scott Eastwood) who scolds her at first. We then learn though that this isn’t where he lives. Both of them are stranded and trying to find their way out. Tom keeps ending up back at the shed though no matter the direction he goes.
They’re then joined by Jody who butts head with both of them from the start. They decide to join together in order to survive. Jody hears gunshots as does Tom. Also the more these three learn about each other, they might not be as different from as they thought. But there are also some really big differences as well. A bunker in the dirt helps to fuel this path to discovery.
As for my recap, I wanted to go a little bit vague as I don’t want to spoil the reveals that we get. I thought it was pretty cool though if I’m going to be honest. I did have a drawback that I guessed a major one pretty early on though and this caused a chain of predicting how things were going to fall into place before they happened. I’m not stating this as way to brag. I bring this up because I do think that they made it a tad obvious.
Going from that though, there’s something in the very beginning that I didn’t catch and it wasn’t until the end that it clicked home. I was really hoping for a more religious angle that could have been taken here, which would have made this even better for me. I do think what they end up going with isn’t bad. It really was interesting and seeing the mystery build was really worth a viewing.
That takes me to pacing, which I thought was solid as well. I never found myself bored and as I said, watching this mystery build really kept my interest. We get pieces as we go and some things that are unnerving as well. I like that Jody makes the comment that it is like Pac-Man, no matter how far they go, the board makes you go back to the main stage. That is a cool way to describe what is happening. As I said, I’m not the biggest fan where the ending goes as I thought there was a different way it could have that would have made it better for me, especially with some of the characters we have here.
I’ll shift this to the acting which is probably the strongest aspect to building the mystery. It also was something that was a giveaway to me, even though it was subtle. Waterston I thought was really good here. She plays Samantha as someone who is timid and somewhat proper. She is struggling with what is happening around them which makes it believable. Eastwood I thought was strong as the male lead here. I did think that he comes off a bit hard on Jody, but I actually like how this plays out at the reveal if I’m honest. Paxton is Jody that I’m not used to what we get from her. I thought she did a really good job and I found her as well as Waterston both attractive. The rest of the cast also round out the film for what is needed as well.
The last thing to cover would be effects. For the most part, we really don’t get a lot of them. I think the dream sequences we get to fill in back-story are fine. They’re shown as distorted, but I like that as I know for me, that is how I remember mine a lot of time. I do have to complain though about the CGI that is used at the end. It is really bad to the point where it is laughable. The film is shot pretty well if I’m going to be honest though.
Now with that said, this film has an interesting mystery that I thought built at a good pace. I never got bored with it and even though I predicted two of the major reveals, I don’t think that is really a bit drawback. I think that the acting helps to bring this life and really was part of the reason I figured things out. The effects are fine aside from the CGI that is used. That was pretty laughable if I’m going to be honest. The soundtrack doesn’t stand out, but it fit for what was needed as I really didn’t notice it. It didn’t take me out of the film though either. I would say this film overall is above average.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10