Review of Are You Scared 2 (2009) by Shawn S — 31 Aug 2010

Although the premise is tired and has been used again and again in Fear dot Com, Stay Alive, Saw, Hostel, Live Feed etc, as entries in the seemingly endless genre go, it wasn't bad. It was obviously made on a low budget, on video, but the finished result was good all things considered.

There was a nice sense of claustrophobia and some good set pieces but it lacked coherence and often promised that it would deliver more shocks than it did. On the plus side it managed to get the balance right between showing gore and torture but not lingering on it to the same extent that some of the other efforts in the genre, which were more gratuitous.

With a bigger budget and tighter plotting and scripting it would have been better, but I always feel we should support indie and low budget films -- and even if they're not brilliant, try to see the good in them.