After helming three “Saw” films, a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” wannabe and a remake of the Troma film “Mother’s Day”, I find it amazing that I gave a shred of hope that Darren Lynn Bousman’s new film “11-11-11″ would be good. However, that hope was wasted as I found myself yawning through the majority of this new flick about the beginning of the end of the world. Bousman tries really hard to be scary, suspenseful and stylish but his feeble attempts come off as desperate, dull and unoriginal. The jump scares in this film are lackluster as are the performances from our lead actors. But, thankfully for me, the film had to end at some point.
The first and foremost problem with Bousman’s “11-11-11″ is the script that he wrote himself. Bousman is not a very strong writer at all and it really shows here. The dialog is flat and repetitious. If for some unholy reason I was forced to endure watching this film again, I would have to watch with a pen and a pad of paper just so I can tally the amount of times it’s acknowledged that the lead character, Joseph Crone (dully played by Timothy Gibbs), is an atheist. That tid-bit of information is brought up so many times that I seriously just wanted to yell at the screen, “Okay, I get it! He doesn’t believe in God, enough already!” Joseph’s story begins when his wife and son are killed when their apartment catches fire. Their death causes Joseph to go into a depression and lock himself up in a small apartment, occasionally leaving to attend a support group for people dealing with grief. This again brings us back to the fact that Joseph is a proud atheist. He begins to experience nightmares of his wife and son’s death, waking up at 11:11 at night or in the morning. After surviving a random car accident that occurred at, you guessed it, 11:11, Joseph receives a call from his brother in Barcelona that his father is on his death-bed.
When Joseph rushes to Barcelona we find out something quite fun about our atheistic friend; his father and brother run a church in their house. So the story goes on, Joseph’s atheistic beliefs are referenced about fifty or sixty more times and creepy things begin to happen, all revolving around the time 11:11. His creepy dying father tells him something about how he must protect his brother because his brother is some sort of savior. Meanwhile, an old woman who’s taking care of the dying man begins to steal about 70% of the jump scares in the film, taking every opportunity that she can to sneak up behind Joseph and tap him on the shoulder or hiding behind something. When Joseph starts investigating the 11:11 phenomena and begins to suspect that something demonic is occurring, he tries to convince his brother of the reality of the situation. When his brother refuses to believe him, Joseph repeatedly uses the argument against his brother, “You believe in a magic man nailed to a cross and a talking snake but you can’t believe that on 11/11 a gate will open between this world and the next?” As compelling an argument as that is, it gets really annoying after you hear it a good three or four times.
I must say that the over-all story line was quite intriguing and the concept could have worked, but the make-up effects used on the ‘angels’, or whatever the creatures were, constantly reminded me of the Sith lord from “Star Wars”. Visually the film had a decent style to it; I suspect the look of the film was given more consideration than the storyline. By far the films weakest point was Bousman’s attempt at a twist ending that felt like it pushed every single limit of belief. Every jump scare could be perfectly timed out and almost every plot twist could be seen coming from a mile away. But do not worry; I will not spoil the film here just in case you feel like wasting away 90 minutes of your life.
“11-11-11″ is now showing in select theaters.
DIRECTING: 5
CINEMATOGRAPHY: 6
EDITING: 5
WRITING: 4
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 5
CONCEPT: 6
ACTING: 5
OPENING: 6
MIDDLE: 5
ENDING: 5
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TOTAL: 52%
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