Review: 11-11-11 (2011)

Earlier this year, director Darren Lynn Bousman gave us his remake of Mother's Day, which was a great film in many ways. He knocked that movie right out of the park. With 11-11-11 though, we're not really sure what the hell happened, because in many ways it didn't even leave the infield.

The story revolves around a famous writer whom is suffering greatly from the death of his wife and kid, so he heads to Barcelona to visit his ailing Dad, whom he pretty much hates. His wheelchair-bound brother loves Jesus, and he has a sexy, sexy stalker, who really should have been under some sort of suspicion since the beginning, despite her sexy hotness.

So, we're off to a great, sensible start.

They dead.

The number 11 keeps showing up in our hero's life, and it's obviously pointing towards some cataclysmic event that's coming, but what is it? Is it like the Mayan Calendar? By all of the spooky dreams of Demons, and random Demons standing around in the shadows and looking ominous, we're guessing it involves Demons. The kind that stand around and look ominous.

Kinda cool, but make it do something!

11-11-11 started out pretty strong, giving us some interesting stuff to chew on and anticipate. We weren't thrilled with the acting, but we figured it was passable, especially if the story was heading somewhere interesting, which it felt like it was. Unfortunately, the first two thirds of the movie were rather slow moving an uneventful, and were spent letting us know how faithless our hero was, and how much his crippled brother loved Jesus. Over and over again.

Yes, yes, you have no faith. We get it.

As slow and plodding as things were, the real crime was that nothing was particularly creepy or captivating about any of it. There were too many subtle things that happened that were supposed to spook us out, but just didn't. Couldn't might be a better word. Worst of all, the plot gets way over-complicated and has no action to counter-balance it. There's really no forward progress with the plot, and a bad narrative will kill a story every time.

Things were so slow in this movie for so long, by the time the action kicks in towards the end, it felt a bit rushed and confused. I mean, after getting shot, you're still running around all half cocked, trying to do everything but stop your wound from bleeding so that maybe you don't die?

Up in flames... now that's fitting.

It felt like "Gotta save my brother!" was the only thing running through our hero's head as things began to unravel, and we get why he'd be so adamant about saving his only living loved one, but the results of that sentiment came off as comical. The wheelchair-bound brother exclaims "I'm not leaving without my books!," which prompts the hero brother to run through the house with an armload of books, dodging Demons and fighting for his life. With an arm-load of books. The whole time. It was kinda goofy. And really, wouldn't you just roll his ass out of the house and be done with it? Come on.

We will say that the movie had a nice look to it, and in that aspect, Bousman did a great job.

Yes, we feel the same way.

This is a messy, bland, and utterly confused movie that had a few good parts, but failed as a whole. You should skip this one and stick with Bousman's far superior Mother's Day remake; it was truly under-the-radar and definitely worthy of any Horror fan's time. 11-11-11 however, was just underwhelming and bland.

 D
 

Wendy Glenn is in this.