I really want to like this movie, but it feels a little too in love with itself.
The premise: the most generic horror movie ever made, but one guy knows it's a horror movie.
I get the feeling this is one of those "secret handshake" kind of movies, where people who were in-the-know would speak highly of it, but it never managed to break through to wider success like Scream did.
The problem is I don't think it ever transcends its source material. It's a great idea told through D-list writing and F-list actors. It's cheaply made and clearly has a quota to meet for showing skin. Some of that comes with the territory, but "There's Nothing Out There" never proves it is worth its own smug commentary.
It's so proud of how meta its being that there's even a scene where one of the actors willingly shoots the audience a look like, "can you believe this, folks?"
Sure -- you could argue it's supposed to be a parody. The unfortunate part there is that I can count the number of actual, honest-to-goodness jokes on one hand. Mostly, it's like watching a cheesy horror movie next to a loud mouth know-it-all that won't shut up, except now that guy has a starring role in the movie itself.
But I can't hate it. It's got moxie. It's trying something, even if it isn't always successful.
The premise: the most generic horror movie ever made, but one guy knows it's a horror movie.
I get the feeling this is one of those "secret handshake" kind of movies, where people who were in-the-know would speak highly of it, but it never managed to break through to wider success like Scream did.
The problem is I don't think it ever transcends its source material. It's a great idea told through D-list writing and F-list actors. It's cheaply made and clearly has a quota to meet for showing skin. Some of that comes with the territory, but "There's Nothing Out There" never proves it is worth its own smug commentary.
It's so proud of how meta its being that there's even a scene where one of the actors willingly shoots the audience a look like, "can you believe this, folks?"
Sure -- you could argue it's supposed to be a parody. The unfortunate part there is that I can count the number of actual, honest-to-goodness jokes on one hand. Mostly, it's like watching a cheesy horror movie next to a loud mouth know-it-all that won't shut up, except now that guy has a starring role in the movie itself.
But I can't hate it. It's got moxie. It's trying something, even if it isn't always successful.