The twist seemed a bit far fetched.

If you are looking for a movie that would put you in the edge of your seat in every single minute for 100 minutes or so, this is one of those. Dakota Fanning and Robert De Niro would put you on the edge on this fast pace, and full of suspense movie.

David Callaway (Robert De Niro), a widower, who happens to be a psychologist, takes on the role to help his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), to go through the trauma of the death of her mother, Alison (Amy Irving). He even move them away from the city and into the country in this particular isolated house to heal. Things turn for the worse when Emily starts getting this gothic drained look, with dark circles under her eyes, more withdrawn and it gets creepier when she develops an imaginary friend, name Charlie. Things gets odd with David having weird dreams involving his late wife, and the house seems to have an unknown intruder, making Charlie a bit more real than being just an imaginary friend for Emily. Anything gone wrong in the house Emily keeps on blaming Charlie and there always seems to be something about. The only time Emily seems to be at least normal is when Katherine (Famke Janssen), her shrink is around. Don’t miss the twisted plot now.

As much as most people hope it’s a horror, I’m sorry to say it’s more a mystery & thriller sort of movie, so don’t complained if you’re looking for horror and gets disappointed after watching this movie. The characters pull you in and the plots are really nerve wreaking. I pretty much enjoy it but they can do better. Nevertheless, I prefer the alternate ending provided by the dvd.

I don’t watch horror films any more ‘cos I want to be able to sleep! This, however, ended up in my VCR without me thinking about what I was sitting down to watch. Just as well, then, that it wasn’t particulary scary!

Oh, it tries to be. Following the suicide of his wife, Bob De Niro ups sticks with cute daughter Dakota Fanning – to the most remote and huge house, beside some creepy woods… d’oh! Yeah, that sounds sensible. And of course little girly ends up with an imaginary friend… or does she?! Mwhahaha!

What follows is an exercise in misdirection, as every possible trail is led to explain some creepy goings-on. Which is fine. And the eventual answer is fine. But too much doesn’t really tie up – it’s done for the sake of being ‘creepy’ and is a bit too blatent to work on me. By the end I was more annoyed by all the red herrings than impressed by the ‘twist’, which was a shame.

So all in all… meh. Not an effective horror film, and no real depth at being anything else.