All things considered, if you're in the mood for a nifty little horror movie you can do a lot worse than this one. Considering that this movie stars a collection of totally unknown actors I wasn't expecting very much, but the truth is that the story alone is pretty good, often frightening and sometimes quite graphic. The performances leave a little bit to be desired (which probably explains why this is a completely unknown cast) but even the performances pick up as the movie goes on, suggesting that it's much easier to realistically play terror than it is to play casual banter and make it interesting.
On Christmas Eve, Los Angeles is being struck by a series of tremors, that start out as minor ones but increase in intensity. Along with the tremors, blackouts begin to plague the city. The movie follows the experiences of the residents of one apartment building, who discover that their building is being infested with a number of human-like and human-devouring monsters, who seem to appear in the basement and work their way up through the floors. The monsters are truly frightening in appearance and the sometimes chaotic interplay between the various residents trying to escape is quite believable. The origin of the monsters was never definitely explained. The opening shot of the movie seemed to suggest that they were aliens, although the fact that they obviously seemed to have broken in through the basement suggested that perhaps they came from underground as a result of the tremors. I suppose it's possible that they were a combination of the two - aliens who long ago took up residence under the earth's surface, and are only now emerging. The uncertainty around that is OK. I can live with some mystery - it makes life more exciting!
All in all, this was surprisingly good and provided both entertainment and a few real chills.
On Christmas Eve, Los Angeles is being struck by a series of tremors, that start out as minor ones but increase in intensity. Along with the tremors, blackouts begin to plague the city. The movie follows the experiences of the residents of one apartment building, who discover that their building is being infested with a number of human-like and human-devouring monsters, who seem to appear in the basement and work their way up through the floors. The monsters are truly frightening in appearance and the sometimes chaotic interplay between the various residents trying to escape is quite believable. The origin of the monsters was never definitely explained. The opening shot of the movie seemed to suggest that they were aliens, although the fact that they obviously seemed to have broken in through the basement suggested that perhaps they came from underground as a result of the tremors. I suppose it's possible that they were a combination of the two - aliens who long ago took up residence under the earth's surface, and are only now emerging. The uncertainty around that is OK. I can live with some mystery - it makes life more exciting!
All in all, this was surprisingly good and provided both entertainment and a few real chills.