This was definitely a movie I appreciated more for what they tried to do rather than what was accomplished.

The idea that bullies come from bullies is obvious and incredibly clichéd, but the movie also postulates small towns breed this type of behavior, as well as the "not my kid" denial behavior. That was interesting and a little different, at least the way it was portrayed. I also really enjoyed the irony of a teacher having to turn on and fight kids.

The problem is the central conceit of the movie is the bad guys are a bunch of scrawny-ass children!

The main character, Steve, is not a fat, lazy piece of shit like me, but a pretty fit guy. So to somehow get around the fact that this dude that obviously works out gets not only attacked but TIED UP WITH BARBED WIRE by a bunch of skinny morons, the movie literally just cuts to hours later whenever something like this happens.

The first time is when the couple is getting chased by the kids after Steve accidentally knifes Brett's stupid dog. Which, by the way, was supposed to be a bad thing, but I felt nothing for, and was quite glad. Anyway, they run, the car crashes, and Steve is stuck. He tells Jenny to run, run far away and get help. She makes it about five feet and hides because the scrawny kids are coming. They make it to the car and

CUT to the next morning. HOURS LATER and Jenny is not only still in her hiding place, she appears very confused when she can't find Steve. She was feet away, the entire time they were...doing whatever.

Did she fall asleep? Pass out from boredom? What was she doing the entire time? How did the kids get Steve out of the car when he was trapped by a tree? How did they manage to tie him up considering all they had was a little tiny knife and a freaking boxcutter? How did Jenny not hear all of this???

Who cares, let's cut away and just assume people won't notice. Thus begins the stupidity. Jenny watches the dumb kids torture her boyfriend instead of helping or running to get help. She magically flies at one point and hides on top of a construction site office with no way to get up there, especially without being heard.

Also, to accentuate my point about Steve, as soon as the knothead kids aren't around, he unravels the barbed wire by himself, stands up, and runs away with no problem at all. Cripes.

It's too bad, really, as there was a good film tucked away in there. It's not without its good moments; whenever one of the kids gets taken out, it's incredibly rewarding (which is weird to say, but true). Though, it's supposed to be tragic, but again, I didn't care. There's nothing redeemable about anybody in the movie at all.

Another good moment comes when a character gets a spike shoved through their foot. Since they can't pull it out by themselves, they instead slam it against a nearby tree and pull it out through the top of their foot. Pretty hardcore. Unfortunately, the moment is ruined shortly after when said character begins trotting through the forest. Then comes a big "twist" I saw coming 28.3 miles away and then another "tragic" moment I could not have given two shits about.

It really is too bad. I'd say with some recasting it would be better...not because anyone is particularly bad, per se, but I absolutely could not believe the premise of the movie with the people that were currently in it. Of course it would also help to do some edits on the script where the characters aren't mentally retarded half the movie. Maybe they should've just rethought what they were doing in the first place and saved me some time.

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