Not exactly a return to form for Carpenter. Terribly scripted, it mostly plods along until the excruciating finale, which makes sure to include the most brainless and obvious of twist endings just for kicks. And of course, there's one last scare for good measure.

That said, it's somewhat entertaining watching a ward of hot, crazy chicks argue amongst themselves and slowly get killed off in increasingly disturbing fashion. It's almost like Sucker Punch, without the insane fantasy sequences.

I thought this was going to be pretty entertaining. Was definitely wrong. Pretty lame thriller with a stupid twist ending.

C-

Meh premise, weak acting, and a really awful, predictable, laughable ending. But it's somehow held together by the fact that Carpenter, even a probably bored Carpenter who knows he's above this material, still has chops.

Eh, definitely not a return to form for old, uninspired John Carpenter, but it's not awful (high praise, I know). The gorgeous, talented cast, including Amber Heard and Danielle Panabaker, obviously care and turn in strong, above-average-for-the-genre performances for Carpenter. And the old master, to his credit, creates a few solid scare sequences. I have particular affection for the scene where Heard and Mamie Gummer's characters are crawling through the poorly lit duct system. But the whole enterprise feels a bit flat. Carpenter, who doesn't even bother composing the original score, relies far too much on jump scares. And the ending is just bad, bad, bad, predictable, rote, bad. So bad it's almost embarrassing everyone on the set thought, "Oh, wow, this is going to surprise those audiences good! This is clever!"

The very ending is even worse. All right, they went for the whole, "Every main character is part of one troubled girl's multiple personality disorder" route. Lame, but fine, I don't care. But then ending on an out-of-nowhere, nonsensical note just to have one more jump scare is offensive. They could've at least integrated the Zooey personality, whose "body" we never see (just a blood trail), or, braver still, just end on a note of honest resolution. Going for a cheap as hell One Last Scare is beneath Carpenter.

C

5/10 -> C-

Decent, but this was done way better a couple of years ago. Watch Identity instead.