Review of Elsewhere (2009) by James S — 06 Sep 2011

Occasionally the straight to dvd market can throw up a real gem. It would be very generous to describe Elsewhere as a "gem", but it's a decent enough thriller which goes above and beyond the confines of its meagre budget.

A lot of the movies success has to do with having cast Anna Kendrick in the lead as Sarah, the bookish best friend of Jillian, who sets about trying to solve the disappearance of her wild child amigo after receiving a violent video message from her.

Kendrick is a young actress who is not likely to be appearing in films of this budget again due to her massive talent in front of the camera and it's her that holds the movie together with a much more assured performance from the female lead than you would usually find in films of this kind. Tania Raymonde has great chemistry with her as Jillian in a nice but believable contrasting best friendship.

It's a shame that the plot of the film is so predictable. There is only really one outcome, and one person who could really be responsible for the shady goings on so Elsewhere isn't exactly brimming with tension, though there are a couple of nice creepy moments. It borrows the usual tricks from suburban horror movies and plays them all well enough but any fans of the genre will see any scare coming.

The film is of that ilk that are obsessed with technology and social media to advance the plot lines. There is scarcely a scene which doesn't feature a mobile phone but for the most part they do their job rather than hindering the story and the film cannot be accused of making the viewer ask that questions of "Why don't they just use their phone?".

Elsewhere isn't likely to be appearing anywhere near the top of Anna Kendrick's resume in the future but it proves that with a talented star and a semi-decent script, not all low budget, direct to dvd horror has to be abysmal.