The story: 8 people wake up in a strange multi-purpose facility with no idea of who they are or why they are there. To make matters worse, a strange shadow creature begins to attack and even kill. Will the people discover the secret of the creature and find out their identity?

The most frustrating aspect of this film is how wasted the cast is. With three fanboy/fangirl favorites together in one film, one would expect fun interaction between them. Wrong. Instead, the actors and actresses are plagued by playing cliched characters. Blalock plays the strong female leader, Marsters plays the shady guy who has the hots for the leader, and Todd plays the tough criminal. If a horror film is to succeed, directors and writers need to think outside of the box and attempt something new.

The script is also a mess. As with many horror films, it starts out promising but quickly becomes a muddled mess. I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but the big explanation scene falls completely flat. It seems as if writer/director Michael Winnick just made it up on the spot.

The movie isn't all sour. The production team did a fine job in giving the sets and locations a creepy and mysterious atmosphere. It's kind of sad, but the actual sets have more personality than most of the characters. Marsters, Blalock, and Todd also give quality performances. They aren't award worthy, but the cast does the best they can with such weak material.

The DVD

Video:
For a straight-to-DVD release, the crew who put this DVD together sure went all out to make a quality disk. When I saw the cover of this film, I was expecting this to be another grainy indie horror flick. Thankfully, I was proven wrong in the picture department. The 1.78:1 widescreen video looks wonderful. The little details of everything from the grungy facility to the smooth legs of Jolene Blalock are clearly visible.

Sound: As with the majority of horror films, sound is key to set the mood and this Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound delivers the goods. From the opening scene in which strange noises appear to surround Jolene Blalock, to the shadow creature attacks, the Dolby track certainly enhances many of the film's scenes.

Extras: The disk contains a few extras. There's a making of along with director and cast comments, but both are incredibly short. Why are most of the Making Of extras less than ten minutes? It's not worth watching the extras if they don't go in depth. Small little glances at what goes on behind the scenes is just a mean tease. Luckily, there is one notable extra- the audio commentary with director Michael Winnick and cinematographer Jonathan Hale. While it would have been nice to include Marsters or Blalock on the track, the two do a good job with the commentary. Michael and Jonathan show great enthusiasm as they talk about everything from sets and lighting to how Blalock really gets into her role by bruising herself! It's a shame such passionate filmmakers couldn't put out a better product.

Final Thoughts:
While fans of Marsters and Blalock will no doubt enjoy the two running around in their underwear for most of the film, the film itself is simply mediocre. Still, you could do a lot worse (like rent a Uwe Boll film).

Film and television enthusiast Nick Lyons recently had his first book published titled "Attack of the Sci-Fi Trivia." It is available on Amazon.com.