Four Boxes DVD Movie Review
Four Boxes DVD Movie Review
Four Boxes, directed by Wyatt McDill. Starring Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen. Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson.
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Sometimes (OK, all the time) I have to remind myself that not every movie need look as though it's been shot by Vittorio Storaro with Roger Deakins as his camera assistant. Sometimes movies don't have to be pretty, cinematic, or otherwise visually stunning. Low budget, direct-to-disk films often suffer from lackluster cinematography, and Four Boxes is no different.
Where it's the exception of its ilk however, is that Four Boxes boasts some excellent acting, interesting characters, surprising turns, a tight script, and a director who knows how to tell a simple story in an engaging, complex manner. (First-timer Wyatt McDill gets major ups from me for pulling this off.)
You may not recognize the actor Justin Kirk's name right off the bat, but if you watch Weeds on Showtime, you know him as Andy. I watch that series and I like him in it, but I've never seen him onscreen before or since — now I have got to say, his expertise and comic timing on Weeds isn't a fluke. He's so natural, it's easy to forget he's performing. Kirk plays Trevor Grainger, an average guy who runs an online auction sales business along with his buddies Rob (Sam Rosen, who is also very good) and Amber (Terryn Westbrook, a little uneven but not glaringly so). The story takes place five years in past when Trevor, Rob and Amber were all holed up in the empty home of a man who committed suicide and has a houseful of items that can be sold online.
As the smart-alecky (the dialogue is delightfully arch) trio catalogues their ill-gotten goodies, they notice a strange website broadcasting from the dead man's laptop computer. It's called FourBoxes.tv and it's a quadrisected view of rooms inside a ratty apartment. As it turns out, the webcam feed seems to be coming from a terrorists' sleeper cell of some kind… there's a creepy masked man bumbling around with bombs, a murder, and some mighty strange goings-on. Meanwhile, the dramatic and sometimes suspenseful triangle between Trevor, Rob and Amber unfolds little by little, making you question their motives and whether one or two of them might have a connection to the terrorist they call "Havoc".
While I will say the very end of the movie is a bit of a letdown, most of it is good; so the 'wah-wah' climax is forgivable. Don't misunderstand me: Four Boxes is not a bloody frightener and it's not a rollercoaster ride of chills and spills. It only just qualifies to be reviewed here on horror.com. However, it's a creepy uni-location (kind of) thriller and mystery along the (admittedly tenuous) lines of Rear Window, Bug, Alone With Her, or Buried.
As I mentioned, the dialogue is pretty heightened (and there's a lot of it… this flick is a yakfest), but if you enjoy the verbal stylings of Tarantino, Cody or Zombie, you should be fine with it. The cinematography isn't bad, it's just bland. The music is fine. The costumes and set design are OK. The editing could have been a little tighter. The real stars here are the script and the cast — I'd like to see another film, one with a bigger budget and a better look, with this director and these actors.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
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