Alone - A Review.

Rating: * *

This one's a horror import from Thailand. Yes, even Thailand people can make horror movies, and good one at that, too; "Shutter" is one such example. However, the American remake stripped the original to its bare, rendering the horror of the original, a tad undermined. But, "Alone" does not fall under the category of spine-chilling horror flicks, at least not for me.

The movie's about a conjoined twins, who get separated after one of them expresses the desire to do so. However, when the movie begins, we're told that only one of them is alive, and the other, well, it doesn't take a genius to realize that the other half of the Siamese twins plays the haunter in the movie. This twin has her reason, which is revealed akin to a shocker in the finale; sadly, that wasn't the case for me. I mean, I've seen so many twisted, mind-bending, and shocking movies, that no movie seems to come even close to knocking my socks off. I'm really dying for a movie, where I don't find myself way ahead of the storyline, character arc and the "twists". I really long for a movie, where my subconscious doesn't figure out the gist, and most often, the shock value the movie promises to deliver. However, for someone who's not a movie freak like me, this movie might be good enough to scare the holy Mary out of them.

The movie had a couple of startling moments. Yes, I use the word 'startling' and not 'scary', simply because there's a world of difference. The shots that last for a fraction of a second, and is a mixture of some awfully decked up lady staring right in your face, accompanied by a crescendo of percussion instruments, is called a startling moment. I find it hard to recall the last scary flick I saw since Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby". A movie is scary, when even just the thought of developments taking place on the screen gives you the chills. Only few movie of that caliber exist; "The Ring" to an extent, is one such movie. "Alone" used all sorts of textbook approach to cue in its viewers to brace themselves, for they're about to be scared. I'm not saying these scenes weren't good enough, it's just that, you prepare yourself in advance for the harrowing scene you're about to see; where's the fun, or scare in that? Anyway, for me the movie was made even more ordinary by its average star cast. The actors didn't have the competency or the range of expression to pull off certain vital scenes. The director tried his best to showcase his horror talents, but alas, looks like there's nothing new left under the sun for the horror filmmakers these days.