Review of Surveillance (2008) by Robert H — 14 Nov 2009

Some carnage has happened. Two FBI agents arrive in a small town police station to interview the survivors / witnesses. They set up cameras in the interview rooms, and one of them watches as the three interviews take place simultaneously. We hear what people are saying, and see instead what actually happened that day.

The title would make you think this could be a movie about social commentary, or maybe satire. It is no such thing. This is a pure thriller, with no clever message, no big brains, not much of a sense of humour. The cast is vaguely interesting to watch (although I spent far too much time thinking about how much Bill Pullman has aged, and that he has not aged well), the story is relatively engaging, and, on the whole, this is not a bad film.

Neither is it a good one. There are some, shall we say, unconventional plot developments, which rather stretch the suspension of disbelief. It is also an unapologetically dark film, with very little reprieve or joy in it. You realise pretty early on that this is a sordid and ultimately sadistic story, and it is not afraid to make the audience uncomfortable voyeurs in a symphony of greater and lesser evils.

It never degenerates into Hostel style torture porn, and it never gets psychologically truly harrowing. Neither does it ever rise above average in any aspect.