for all it many flaw and i be incline to be charitable towards thing . there be the nugget of an interesting and creepy and claustrophobic hitchcock style story here . put this in the hand of a writer like theodore sturgeon or ( if you prefer british perspective ) robert bloch and or the guy who write day of the triffids and and you might have have a nasty and unsettling little spook story that be the best thing in an book anthology of horror and suspense story . however and someone choose to tell this story a a feature length movie and and a cheap and 2nd rate at that and and so most of the potential be waste . a story like this really need a voice like sturgeon to bring out interest quirk of character in a good light . his classic story the widget and the wadget and and boff be an example of how he can gather together an isolated group of ordinary character and in the space of 40 page can turn them into the most amusing and sympathetic and fascinating people you have ever meet . a good writer can and with a few chosen word and make the reader see some of the most vivid and memorable event ever to scar his emotion . instead and we get a movie where some of the most irritating and unlikeable character ever make be lump together and make to interact in unconvincing where do that come from . moment that just lie there . ( ie the blond psychic girl declaim that youre all evil and i hope you be destroy . ) . we get leaden pacing and slow motion blocking and dull set and stiff actor . i blame the director for the tiff and shallow part . these be all 3rd rank character actor who never make the big time and but they be also real actor and and a good director could have get good performance out of them . we get uncalled for lesbian overtone that make the viewer feel uneasy and exploit without deliver any kind of payoff . ( if i be go to have my baser instinct exploit and feel guilty about it and i want do by stuff stag good than this ) . and we get over an hour of creepy build up diffuse in about 35 second in one of the bad anti climax i have ever see . good thing about thing . um and well . some of the closeup shot of the warlock head silently mouth it directive be pretty effective . the miserly and shrewish widow rang true to life ( even if i want to stuff a sock in her mouth ) . the first scene where the big and simple ranch hand silently turn on the oily cowboy and kill him have a bit of shock value and because the plot have take the trouble to establish the big guy a a fairly sympathetic character . and like i say earlier and the idea of an insidious force from the past turn the member of an isolated community against each other be a good one and can sustain interest far above the actual merit of a bad performance . which this definitely be . but and a i say and i be incline to be charitable and because the director be probably work under a penurious budget and breakneck time constraint and the best actor he could find for the money . heaven know how future generation will judge facile crap like the cave and wrong turn or the remake of house of wax 40 year from now . i hope they be charitable towards our own taste in support our generation waste of film stock .