In case some of you aren't familiar with the back story on this, I'll throw some info out.

Star studded affair with Nic Cage, Nic Kidman, and a host of recognizable faces, directed by Joel Schumacher, with a $35 Million budget.  The film was shot in 2010.  Apparently Mr. Cage decided he wanted to play a different role during filming.  His role was then offered to Liev Schrieber, but good old Nic returned the following day, and all was hunky dory.

This "film" holds the record for a theatrically released film in that it was the fastest to go from the theaters to DVD - 18 days later, nudging out another amazing piece of celluloid, "From Justin to Kelly", 2003's American Idol disaster.

The Box Office returns here are just stellar at a whopping $24,000 NABO, and another  $4.8 Million Overseas...suffice to say someone lost a shitload of money, and if that came as a surprise to them, they're fucking dumber than I'm giving them credit for, and as far as I'm concerned, every single person involved with this fiasco should be happy they're not institutionalized for being legally insane.

BEGIN RANT

This is easily one of the most anemic, poorly written and conceived pieces of dog shit I've ever come across.  With a $35 Million budget and basically only 1 location that appears to be a real house, I'm not going to accuse the film of being cheap or looking bad.  I'm not even going to accuse Mr. Schumacher of doing a crappy job on the directing.  And even though the acting is pretty bad all the way around, I'm not going to accuse either Nic or any of the other actors of phoning in a performance.

The problem here is the incredibly juvenile, writing of 1 Karl Gadjusek, who's other writing credits include the TV series, "Dead Like Me" from 2004.  But, can he really be blamed for writing a moronic, laugh out loud, cliched, sophomoric, no talent piece of shit script?  Hell, lots of idiots write shit like this...only difference is...thank God, most of them never see the light of day.

But, no...not here, not this time.  Somehow, Mr Gadjusek not only got his script into the hands of the right people, he got it green lit, attached major star power, and financed a whopping $35 Million.  Incredibly, this most likely means, he secured somewhere just north of $1 Million for his time and talent.  UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE!

I've said it many times and I'll say it again - the decision makers in Hollywood (or anywhere else for that matter) are seriously fucking idiots.

This plot and story is absolutely pathetic.  Downright ridiculous.  The characters are some of the poorest drawn and stupidest I've ever come across.  The set up is ludicrous.  The actions and reactions of all involved would fit much better in a slapstick comedy.  I mean, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK was everyone, and anyone thinking when they read this pile of ape shit?  What were they thinking as they went through pre-production?  What were they thinking as they were shooting it?  My God...I'm just absolutely amazed at the complete ineptitude on display here.

END RANT

Within the first minute, I knew I was in for a rough view, as it was so poorly set up and so unbelievably acted.  But the real amazing thing is that it continuously 1 ups itself every few minutes.  Seriously...it does.  It gets more and more outlandishly hilariously bad as it crawls along, and that in itself is saying quite a bit.

Talk about a group of bumbling idiot crooks.  My God...I honestly think an 11 year old could write better, more believable characters.  These people take the cake for being complete fucking idiots.  The only way they could be worse would be if this was a comedy starring The Three Stooges, or those 2 dumbfucks from the "Home Alone" movies.

To call any and all of this implausible is like saying fresh dog shit smells like fucking shit.  Of course it does...it's shit, asshole, and this is exactly the scent on display here.

But, to make matters much worse, every character continually yells and screams their lines, usually while sobbing, and almost always swearing.  Then, we're treated to at least 20 Flashbacks that are so poorly constructed, it's laugh out loud hilarious.

You know, I could go on and on for pages and pages after 1 viewing about all that's wrong here, all that's ridiculous, all that's fucking pathetic.  How in God's name could a group of wealthy decision makers, seasoned film people, and strong actors not have a remote clue of what a fucking disaster this steaming turd was going to be?  How is it possible?  Please, someone help me here.

Absolute piece of steaming shit, served on a silver platter with a bottle of Dom and a linen napkin.

All involved should get a lobotomy, cause it's apparent there brains aren't functioning.

Karl "Fuckwad" Gadjusek should be embarrassed with himself, but I'm sure he was laughing all the way home from the bank.

I stayed away from this turkey.

It's a thinly veiled shockingly unacknowledged remake of "Kidnapped".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1629377/

I say shocking, because some of the scenes are lifted, shot for shot.

E.D.

Ha ha. Watched this a couple of weeks ago. Didn't even bother posting a review. It would've been, "don't waste your time." I wonder how many people signed on to be a part of this before they read the script, which is usually the standard excuse for any in Hollywood being involved in a stinker. Anyway, you summed it up better than I would've, although, like you, for some reason i sat through the entire film...

Finally watched Drive last night, I think it finally chased the stench out of my PS3 left by this turd.

When you get a chance, check out the Shrine on Netflix. Terrible characters and acting, but it was the first film in awhile to give me some solid chills. Good blood-fest ending, too.

James

I saw The Shrine - hated it...but not nearly as much as this pond scum.

Haha.  We had a grand ol' time watching Trespass.  Easily one of the most moronic films I've ever seen in my life, but in an entertaining way.  That said, Trespass isn't a "so bad it's good" film in any sort of traditional sense.  I think it was most amusing for us as a group of filmmakers watching to see the way in which the film -- as Jeff rightly mentions -- continually outdoes itself in inanity of dialogue and stupidity of plot.  It really is just unbelievable the way the movie unfolds.

Personally, I'd say it's well worth the watch for the sort of...incredulity factor.  Terrible film, though.  Absolutely the worst.

Quoted Text This "film" holds the record for a theatrically released film in that it was the fastest to go from the theaters to DVD - 18 days later, nudging out another amazing piece of celluloid, "From Justin to Kelly", 2003's American Idol disaster.

The film in question was picked up for VOD/ HDNet a few days before its brief theatrical run in the selected theatres. As a rule of revenge, most theater chains won't go near a (new) film that has a VOD deal.

I actually thought this was another version of The Desperate Hours myself.

Still, unlike some, I'm not going to put all the blame on the writer. As mentioned, the film had production problems. It's quite possible the script may have been fixed when it wasn't broken. I'm also of the opinion that Joel Shumacher had never fully recovered from the Neon Batman debacles. Oh, the wish to return to better days with Grisham adaptations, Lost Boys, DC Cab and Flatliners!

Yeah, DC Cab. Say what you want to, but I laughed my ass off at that film.

Quoted from DarrenJamesSeeley Still, unlike some, I'm not going to put all the blame on the writer.

I'll never understand why some people think the writer is never to blame.  U just don't get it.

Do you think the dialogue was changed during production to come off as inane as it did?

Do you think the plot and story was changed as they filmed to be as preposterous as possible?

C'mon Darren.  $35 Million was spent here.  There were a host of more than competent actors.  Schumacher may not be everyone's favorite Director, but he's been in the business for eons and definitely knows what he's doing.

Plain and simple, this is an example of an abomination of a script, based on the plot, the story, the setup, the characters, the action, and the reaction.

How could you seriously argue any other way?  Or better yet, why would you?

The thing is though, Jeff. They all must have liked the script or none of them would have signed on.

If they actually read the script and liked it, then as I said and say often, they're fucking complete idiots.  Anyone who even remotely considered this script to be even halfway decent is a complete moron.

This honestly comes off like a grade school kid watched a few R rated movies and wrote this out in 2 days, having no clue whatsoever what adults and the real world are like.

Something else I often say, which seems to fall on deaf ears is that just because a script gets picked up, greenlit, funded, made into a film, doesn't mean it's a good script.  In no way does it mean that.

The problem just may be that lots of Pro writers write their scripts in a hip way that fools the idiot moneymen into thinking it's a good script, cause they are complete fucking idiots who don't know a good script even when it bursts out of their disgusting, bloated guts like the original Alien.

If ever there's a time to blame the lame brain writer, this heaping, steaming pile of elephant shit is the perfect example of everything that's wrong in a script.

so, how do you think Blackout will turnout?  

Excellent!  

I watched it for free on NETFLIX and the one thing that bothered me was a lack of focus on which "baddie" was the most bad.  At one point, Cam Gigandet was the chief heavy, then switched to that white thug from "Dark Blue", whatever his name is.  And then the leader of the pack turned into a wimp about halfway through the movie.  There was no one character for us to truly hate.

Quoted from Dreamscale I'll never understand why some people think the writer is never to blame.  U just don't get it. Do you think the dialogue was changed during production to come off as inane as it did? Do you think the plot and story was changed as they filmed to be as preposterous as possible?

First of all, I said that I don't put *all* the blame on the writer(s). Granted, there are times when some writers are paid to write what they are paid to write. Perferct example is Kurtzman & Orci. One day Star Trek. Next day, Transformers. If the writing credits were erased you'd never guess the writing team was behind both.

To answer some questions:

1 - It's possible. Some actors go off the page. Things do get rewritten from time to time, better or worse. Some writers may even come on uncredited. Shit happens.

2- It's possible, The story itself resembles to films of the past where a couple is held hostage (some examples mentioned above) and I also hold to the idea that Shumacher is still limping on since '97

I'll have to see the film now for this to continue.

****THE FOLLOW UP****

Just got done watching in VOD. There's one unanswered question, although I'm pretty sure I know the answer. If the invaders/thieves have to answer to a behind-the scenes mastermind - a drug kingpin - who do I think that kingpin was?

probably the rich emo kid's daddy, since emo kid shows off the cash stacks and does the coke lines I'll tell you why in a minute.

The leader of the invaders "knows" who ripped off the deal. That person, an unstable stalker-type, is among the crew. His big brother looks out for him, does not know. I'd forgive it if they already knew and the doper (who doesn't cover his face well) was there as an act of proving his worth. Otherwise, the kingpin would have TCB.

There was some early tension, but it started to drag. I put my finger on when it went south for me. It happened when the daughter came home. There was a 'time limit', a ticking clock! Why didn't they use it? I can't tell you why. But I'm willing to play Vegas odds that an earlier draft of the script might ---just might-- have used it. More I think it over, I'm more sure of it.

How can I figure it out?

Here's the path. Daughter wants to go to party. Big setup for that. Daughter rebels against parents, sneaks out of the house, meets friend on highway.

*obvious reshoot* - bad pole placement/watch the speed.

Daughter arrives at party. Using our "kingpin son" theory (and the implied notion that daughter's friends may hang around a 'bad element') they know the daughter is out of the house. This solves two problems: one, if the daughter is at the Kinpin son's party... they can LIE and say "we have your daughter" or someone slips daughter a sleepy drug, locks her up etc. But let's say the party will last two to three hours.

The other problem solved is that the crooks will have one less person to watch.

When Daughter arrives at party, the thieves break in about the same time. Much is made of the "two hour" deadline. Who comes back exactly two hours later? On the nose!

So, after enduring the torture of the couple - not just threatening to kill them, but by having the junkie-stripper GF slink around in the wife's evening dresses, and dissention among the ranks,which is another form of anguish - the daughter gets rid of junkie stripper girl who threaens to shoot all the party people - one thing is paid off (hey, junkie pole dancer dies by the pole!hahaha!) but why show the emo kid with the drugs and cash? She's really a good girl at heart, right? Remember: she got there, back home, on the right moment (right music cue too) ...

A lot of the dialog was banal. A lot of it consisted of everyone dropping F bombs a hundred times a minute. When I hear that much, a good chunk of it is ad-libbed. It usually is. Still, it seems as if it is the only language they know. The flashback whether or not the "security guy" messed around with the wife. When it's revealed that she didn't screw him, I'm thinking two things.






- Why didn't she tell her husband/authorities/ security company "hey, this guy's a creep"?

- Why did the crew bring him along if they knew he may have had come on to the wife?

There's only one plausible explantion. I bet it's also in a previous draft.

There's no way to know for sure unless I find those early drafts. One thing is undisputed. The finished film is bad.

DJS, are you telling me you haven't even seen the movie and you're defending the writer and condemning Schumacher, the Director?

There's nothing that could be done by any Director, based on this ludicrous plot and story.

C'mon now...

I edited the above post, Jeff.

Fact is, from what I heard about the film, it did sound like the script was tampered with. I watched the film, and had to see the finished product. There was a plot point that got my attention, not in a good way. The film spirialed downward from there and never recovered.

Everyone gets blame for this.

Amazing...simply amazing.

Talk about reading into the movie...and script. Searching for something...that isn't fucking there.

Dude, c'mon, man.  How about it's just a terrible movie, based on a terrible, juvenile, no thought script?

IMO, there are literally hundreds of absolutely ridiculous things thrown in and going on in this 90 minute movie, meaning more than 1 every single minute.

DJS, I really don't know why you'd want to attempt to stick up for such a piece of steaming crap. I really don't get it.

Ad-libs usually occur when the written dialogue isn't working in certain places. It's done to make the dialogue better, not worse.  If this was heavily ad-libbed, can you even imagine what the script's actual dialogue must have looked and sounded like?  I'm talking about the script that got greenlit for a $35 Million budget.

Again, DJS, I'm just amazed by your comments.  You say flat out that it's a bad movie, but yet you try and read things in from 3 stadiums away, and apparently had no problem until the daughter returned home.  On the contrary, I knew, and I mean I literally "knew" the movie was going to really suck during Cage's phone conversation as he was driving his Carrera home, 2 minutes into the movie.  It went downhill from there and it continued to 1 up itself every minute or so.

Pure shit.  

Watching this right now and I'm 37 minutes in. I can totally see (at this point) why it got made. It has tension and conflict right off the bat. I'm not saying it's good, but garbage?  Not yet.

I ask you who trash this film and say the writer is to blame...do you have a script that is better and would receive more than 2.5 stars as a produced film as this one does on NF?

"Yes".

Tension?  Pia, are you serious?  For reals?

Yes...  

Okay, finished the movie. Was it great? No. Was it one of the worst I've ever seen? No.

Like I said earlier, I can totally see why it got made. Tension. Thrills. Twists. One location.....

You people who hated it and say it's complete garbage, what script of yours do you think would have been better if produced? I'm serious. Looking for a real discussion here. The reason is that I'm not the best writer here at ss, but for some reason producers/directors seem to like my stuff. What is it that writers see in films that those producer/directors don't agree on?  Just curious...

Watched this just because I was interested in the debate...never heard of it before this thread.

The first 20 minutes were OK. Standard genre stuff...dialogue a bit lame but not enough to throw me out. Decent pace, decent tension. Nic Cage's character has legs...neurotic and interesting.

Then it started unravelling quite dramatically.

Massive gaps in logic, overly complicated and convoluted plot.

The main problem with it was that it broke its own genre too much. The strength of this kind of thriller is the tension and claustrophobia...here there are flashbacks disrupting the tension and ultimately completely killing it.

The genre also relies on clear forces of antagonism...and the baddies in this unravel one by one till there is no fear level and thus no tension. Compare it to a more successful film in this vein...Panic Room. You had a similar thing going on with the antagonists, where one isn't that bad...but it always maintained the one true psycho to keep tensions up.

This film just seems to find itself with no where to go and everyone just starts shouting a lot and revealing increasingly bizarre back stories in dialogue.

I think the probem with the film stems from the fact they've started with a cliched premise and are straining very hard to try and make it fresh in some way by introducing twists and plot points...but they've stretched it beyond breaking point and lost what's good about this kind of film in the first place.

The fact that it's downright laughable at times doesn't help either.

"Your filthy lust invited them in!".

Pia, I think it's a bit off track to call out people who disliked the film and ask, "Can you do better?  And if so, prove it with a script, so we can deconstruct it."  Just doesn't make alot of sense and has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

I'm shocked you found this to have "tension, thrills, and chills".  For me, like many, many others, I found it cringe-inducing and seriously  and literally laugh out loud funny and downright bad.  The "twists" and crazy revelations were both laughable and juvenile, and so poorly thought out.

Obviously to each his own, but IMO, this is 1 of the worst examples of a simple to write and execute premise, with a large budget and star power avaialble.

TBH, I think it's quite a difficult film to write.

That's one of the main problems with it, I think. I imagine the script has gone through several iterations trying to wean out a story from somewhere.

The idea of people breaking into a house to get into a safe isn't particularly strong. I'm not sure it's even got the legs for a short, let alone a feature.

There's really nowhere for the story to go organically...and this results in increasingly bizarre twists being dreamt up to get around the central problem.

I can see why they made it...the idea of people turning up pretending to be cops is a decent start...but there needed to be a more interesting reason for them to be there.

Alternatively, they could have told a different story that takes place elsehwere...a David Fincher type story about the gang and their different plots and reasons to be involved in the heist...including the guys attraction to the woman. Then the climax could have been the hostage situation rather than the premise.

You misunderstood me Jeff.  

I just meant that here we are at SS. We write screenplays. We call ourselves writers and here we are trashing this script. Can we do better than this? There must have been something about this script that all these pros liked. What is it?

And just to clarify, I did not think it was a great movie, just didn't think it was as bad as you made it out to be. Yellow Brick Road on the other hand was terrible IMO.

Quoted from Dreamscale Dude, c'mon, man.  How about it's just a terrible movie, based on a terrible, juvenile, no thought script? DJS, I really don't know why you'd want to attempt to stick up for such a piece of steaming crap. I really don't get it. Again, DJS, I'm just amazed by your comments.  You say flat out that it's a bad movie, but yet you try and read things in from 3 stadiums away, and apparently had no problem until the daughter returned home.  On the contrary, I knew, and I mean I literally "knew" the movie was going to really suck during Cage's phone conversation as he was driving his Carrera home, 2 minutes into the movie.  It went downhill from there and it continued to 1 up itself every minute or so. Pure shit.

Since Joel Schumacher is (overall) a seasoned director and the film was co-produced by Irvin Winkler (Rocky, Goodfellas, Shipping News, many others) I can't agree with you that everyone just picked up a medicore script. The script did attract  name actors for the leads (although to be fair, it may have had also to do with the talent behind the camera) ...that's why the film is also disappointing. You expect more, you expect better.

And I'm not reaching with my theory. I know a pickup shot when I see one.
The daughter going to the party/leaving party seems like a bizzare thread that doesn't have anything to do with the story. She could have stayed home and you'd get the same movie. The only logical explanation is that it was a leftover echo from a previous draft. I have no way of knowing if the previous drafts were better or worse. What I do know is that the script was bought and produced. The end result was a bad film.

Again, Jeff, I must repeat that I am blaming the writer  Karl Gajdusek - for if there were revisions he was a party to them (and he's still gettin' paid to doctor/polish other scripts, which wouldn't happen if he was that much of a hack) but I'm also blaming those who made the film itself.

This maybe a small cog in the problem machine of this movie, but...

Perhaps the origins of the script are part of the problem.
Trepass is heavily borrowing from a contained thriller, a low budget Spanish film.
Kidnapped's entire running length can be boiled down to 12 shots. *I think.*

Given that, I can see how throwing A-listers into a retread comes off this way.
It's an intense, closed in premise, delivered by A-Listers that chew up scenery.
That duality didn't exist in the Spanish film, which I like better.

Just an early morning thought.

E.D.

OK, you guys...you know I love a good back and forth discussion involving anything that has to do with writing and/or movies, so I'll continue playing along.

I want to address several of your comments in detail, but I also want to make a few general statements.

First of all, as far as I'm concerned, pretty much any topic/plot/story can be made into a good/solid script and movie.  It doesn't matter if it's a cliched been there seen that scenario or something brand spanking new.  It doesn't matter if it's simple or complex.  And it doesn't matter if it's cerebral and thought inducing, or cookie cutter leave your brain at the front door.

As I always say, "The devil is in the details", and I'll go to my grave believing in that 100%.

For instance, take a simple slasher scenario - we've all seen hundreds and hundreds of the exact same setup and story, yet some are good, some suck, some work, and some don't.  There's a simple reason why, and to me, it's very, very simple.

Same can be said for this scenario - the home invasion.  It's been done to death to varying degrees of success and failure, and again, for me, it's Kindergarten level simple to see why.

Pia and Rick - You both say you can see why this was picked up, and that in itself is quite shocking to me.  First of all, because this exact same premise has been done so many times already, but more importantly because the setup and execution is so hamfisted and ridiculous, and the details so completely implausible.

There's absolutely nothing here we haven't seen before done much, much better.  Why in God's name would anyone get even remotely excited at such a premise?  How could anyone involved with this not have seen immediately how poorly thought through this entire thing was?  I honestly don't get it.

Pia - You ask if "we" can do better than this script?  I'll answer this personally, not speaking for anyone else other than myself.  Can I write a better home invasion script, assuming I have a budget of over $25 Million and A or B level talent involved?  Hell yes!  Without a doubt.  For starters, I wouldn't make the obvious mistakes on display here, and even if everything else was exactly the same, if nothing else, my script would be believable, and by being believable, it would include the tension, thrills, and chills you somehow picked up with this stinkpot.

But, personally, I'd go much further than just that.  As Rick correctly pointed out, the structure here is just a frickin' mess the way the Flashbacks and back story are utilized.  The poor dialogue is also a killer here, and IMO, it's a simple fix.

I say it over and over and I'll most likely never stop - the initial setup in a script/movie is key to everything that follows, and the writer here started this race with a broken leg, and then dragged himself across the finish line with only stumps left where his legs once were.  This was dead in the water before Cage even said hello to Kidman.

DJS - You continually mention this side plot that you feel was left over from an earlier script version, involving the daughter, the kid she met at the party, and his father being the "kingpin" behind all this.  In your last post, you say that "you know a pickup shot when you see one", referring to the entire daughter leaving the house scenes, and that you're confident about this because it has to be, because if there wasn't some unknown/unseen rationale, the movie would be exactly the same whether or not she left in the fist place.

I don't agree at all.  The movie would not be even near the exact same movie and it would also be about 25 minutes shorter than its already short 90 minute padded runtime.

IMO, the reasons are quite clear, but the problems are really just a shockingly immature and juvenile way of setting up the finale the writer wanted, or thought he needed.  Check this out...

1)  If the daughter didn't sneak out, the entire movie (other than the Flashbacks) would have been confined to the house and yard.

2)  With the daughter there, the options and opportunities to play with are much more limited than having the opportunity for her character to become the savior or just another victim.  Also, with her not there, the Antags dealt with the Protags differently, meaning they could pad the film by having 2 completely different conflicts going on - when she was there and when she wasn't.

3)  After we find out there's no money in the safe, fake jewelry, and no diamonds, means the movie is basically over - unless there's another way to get something out of all this - and that's where this side plot comes in.  It's completely inane and absurd, but then again, so's everything in this script.  The daughter says, 'I know where you can get alot of money", and then we go into a series of absurd scenes in which the druggie/hooker girlfriend goes with the daughter to the party house to get this cash (can you even imagine how that would play out if the daughter actually took her there?  It would be comical, and would never work in a million years).  So, by doing this, our friend Karl, the brilliant writer, separates his Antags, and allows little Miss Daughter to take Druggie/Hooker out of the equation, and set up a save the day situation, with her unknown return.

OK, enough of that.  Let me end with this, and this refers back to my "Devil is in the details" philosophy.

Whether you buy into any of the Antag's actions or plans to make this go down or not, there are several very glaring and simple mistakes that no crooks would ever actually make, unless it had to be included to pad a 30 minute script into a 90 minute movie.

Showing up at the house, wearing those pathetic masks that didn't even conceal their identity is a fucking joke...absolutely ridiculous.  Having Cam Gigandet's character even there is also a frickin' laugher, but again, if he had to be there for some unknown reason, in no fucking way would he wear such an obvious disguise that shows his unique eyes.  This entire plot point is solely so the movie plays out the way it does and we get to see all those lovely Flashbacks and ridiculous back story.

Just moronic on an epic level.

As for it being picked up:

1. The Strangers was a surprise hit...so it makes sense they'd look for a similar story.

2. Kidnapped obvioulsy did well enough commercially that the studios were open to a remake of sorts. That film wasn't particularly well received either if Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by.

3.The people who greenlight these projects aren't necessarily interested in how good the story is...but in the demographic and the relevance of the project to the market.

The story is the writers and Director's job...they are the ones responsible for that aspect of it. The Producers are responsible for getting the money and a decent cast etc.

Rick...The Strangers?  You're comparing this to The Strangers?

The Strangers is horror, marketed as horror, shot as horror, set up as horror.  The Strangers has zero twists and surprises.  It's appeal is in its terror and creep factor.

Apples and oranges in every way, IMO.

Well, if you're correct in your comment about "the people who greenlight these projects aren't necessarily interested in how good the story is...", at least that confirms what I was pretty sure I already knew - that these people are complete fucking idiots and every time a crappy movie loses a shitload of money, I for one will do a little jog and say, "Ain't that a surprise?".

So basically Jeff, what you're saying in a nutshell is, you loved that film and everyone should see it!?

Well, everyone should definitely see it, as it's an example of everything that can be wrong in a script.

Quoted from Dreamscale Rick...The Strangers?  You're comparing this to The Strangers? The Strangers is horror, marketed as horror, shot as horror, set up as horror.  The Strangers has zero twists and surprises.  It's appeal is in its terror and creep factor. Apples and oranges in every way, IMO. Well, if you're correct in your comment about "the people who greenlight these projects aren't necessarily interested in how good the story is...", at least that confirms what I was pretty sure I already knew - that these people are complete fucking idiots and every time a crappy movie loses a shitload of money, I for one will do a little jog and say, "Ain't that a surprise?".

The reason I bring the Strangers up is that Trespass is a remake of Kidnapped...a film which was essentially just torture porn when all is said and done.

Kidnapped starts off gritty and realistic (which tends to be the csse with European films in general) and then becomes very nihilistic and brutal.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi424385817/

I don't know how well Kidnapped did, but it seems to have caught the eye of the powers that be at some point...and I'm just guessing that it's because it was a bit similar to the Strangers which was a very popular film.

I suspect you'd prefer kidnapped. It's a thinly plotted film, but that means there are fewer gaps in logic. It's not greta by any means, but it's pretty intense and hard hitting.

The writers of Trespass appear to have tried, rightly or wrongly, to make the story wider and more intricate and it's much less of a horror (Kidnapped won several Horror awards).

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films It's not greta by any means, but it's pretty intense and hard hitting.

It's true, Greta WAS pretty intense.



Sorry.

HaHa...that's hilarious!  Well done, Chris.  Funny...