tnrcooper I found this to be a very scary movie. From the first time I saw Joe Hilditch (Bob Hoskins) helping the innocent Felicia (Elaine Cassidy) after she had arrived nervously from Ireland, I felt uneasy. When I saw him with his eyeglass eating such a lovingly prepared meal by himself, I felt more uneasy. When I saw him look in the side-view mirror watching Felicia walk away to find Johnny (Peter McDonald), I felt even more uneasy. However, the confirmation that he was indeed a predator was when we saw the clip of Felicia unburdening herself to him...and then clips of multiple girls doing the same and realizing that those girls had not survived. From there, we are in the thrall of terror, wondering what will be Felicia's fate. We know if she remains in Hilditch's orbit that she is destined for a terrible ending. In spite of knowing Hilditch's true character well before the end of the movie, it does not deter us from being interested in how the movie turns out because director Atom Egoyan has spun such a suspenseful web.This is really a wonderfully terrifying movie. Bob Hoskins is terrifying, Egoyan is wonderful, Elaine Cassidy is good as the naive Irish girl. If you want a good scare that will stay with you, check out this movie.

kenjha A middle-aged man whose mother was a TV chef works for a catering company but leads a secret life as a serial killer. There should be a law requiring Great Britain to add subtitles to any film with Hoskins before it can be exported to the unsuspecting masses expecting the spoken language to be English. Hoskins is a pretty good actor but the language he speaks is not English. The pacing is very deliberate, with too much screen time devoted to mundane actions like driving and walking. Little is revealed about the psyche of a serial killer. The ending is ridiculous. Egoyan has made a number of intriguing films, but this is not one of his better efforts.

bob_bear The TV announcer who introduced this late one Saturday night said it should have won Oscars. Quite a statement for a film I'd never heard of...though why I should have taken any notice of a TV announcer, I don't know. In the event, said announcer was talking tripe.It's a dreary, miserable movie that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I couldn't get on with Hoskins' awful Burr-ming-gum accent. Can't see any advantage in it being set in the Midland's anyway. Unresolved threads abound...and I wouldn't normally mind this but half of them make no sense. And what about when Hoskins' says he'll pick Felicia up from outside her B&B although she never told him where exactly she was staying??? Or her buying into the funeral that clearly never took place (and where was she during those days???) Clumbsy and ill-thought through bits of business if you ask me.It's a thriller without thrills. It's full of pretentious bits of business. It's depressing... Didn't like it. Thought it was rubbish. Wouldn't recommend it. 'Nuff said.

christopher-underwood One gets the very clear impression, from his films, that Mr Egoyan did not have the most satisfactory of childhoods. Well, that's a shame for him, but I guess a bonus for us because we get to see the results of him exploring the themes through film. This is a very good film in which he surely gets from Bob Hoskins, the best performance of his life. He certainly won't be getting anymore British Telecom, 'It's good to talk' ads after the talk he does in this but it is most persuasive. Perhaps one wishes now and again for Felicia, wonderfully played by, Elaine Cassidy, to be a little more 'street wise' or for the director to push things forward a little more quickly, but all in all, a most satisfying and disturbing work.