It sounds like it should be a good movie.
A couple guys pack up a closed video store’s dusty library and find a mysterious VCR game (if you’re under 40, Google “VCR games”). They go home and play the tape and then next thing you know, Barbara Crampton is spookin’ out everybody through the TV screen and there’s a half-assed Lucio Fulci portal to Hell open in the basement. The light goes red and purple and some brief gore pops up after a looong forty-five minutes.
There are good things here, but where this movie crashes its Kia is that it tries to get its actors to really act. They’re not just screamers and obnoxious future dead meat (always the safe choice). Nope, this film asks them to carry a whole bunch of drama about two estranged brothers and their struggle to communicate. When the movie weaves that into the horror story, it’s all right. Mostly though, you’re stuck watching a young cast and first-time feature director Jackson Stewart struggle uphill with their soap opera without much humor to ease the pain.
Recommended mostly to Barbara Crampton fans because she has the best part.