[psycho d]

Blackout (2008). This movie starts out really bad, I mean the acting was lamentable. But through sheer perseverance this movie makes a grand turnaround to enter the annals of a pretty darn decent psychological thriller. I have to wonder if the beginning's bad acting was intentional. It might even make sense. With the exception of movie greats such as 12 Angry men, claustrophobic flicks need to give the viewer a breath of fresh air, and this one does so with clever use of flashbacks; otherwise it would have been an insufferable affair. The story slowly builds and the mounting tension was was adroitly snappy. The acting could have been better, but for a low budget affair it would be unfair to expect anything better. One cheap fix would have been to sharpen up the dialog, but it got the job done. There were some enjoyably gruesome moments in the third chapter, and the villainy that was exposed lent credence to the nasty things we hoped would come his way. The effects were decent and the camera work was fun. In lesser hands this flick would not have worked, but Castaneda worked wonders with a barely decent script, sparse budget, and rough acting. Merci.
d