The Disappearance of Jenna Matheson (2007) Reviews

• Movie length build for a split second of real creep ... that works.

  Poe-172009-06-12

  Definite Spoilers ... but I'm not going to tell you what spoils ... Simple set up ... college crowd tosses a party of stereotypical sort; drugs, sex and all the other goodies including the social dynamics and modern shenanigans that include video (yes, it has a "Blair Witchy" feel so if that one didn't connect with you, neither will this one - but, if it did ...). Add booze, the other chemicals and a few hours for the recipe to come to a boil and we get to "the incident". Tale unfolds with interviews with those who were there, interlaced with snippets of video taken at the time. All sides of who-did-what are visited; everything leading to the split second of real creep. This is a way cheapo film with thinkers at the helm and damned fine performances turned in by almost everyone (none of whom we know). It builds, one well executed step at a time, to a consensual sexual encounter between Jenna Matheson and a dude that slowly seems to become a consensual encounter for a threesome. Then things tilt sideways and slide into the really, really wrong. Now she's dead, now she's not, she's dead again, now she's not and ... a creepy, low key but gut punching "Boo!" Well written, well developed, well executed. It's competition are the loud, blood splattered, in your face terror-films. It's power is in a film maker's ability to to orchestrate an entire film around a few seconds of "Oh !!!!". Jenna leaving the "scene" with dropped and floor-angle camera catching her exit (and the tiny detail of underwear) was masterpiece level film making. Way less nasty than you think it will be but more nasty from a direction you don't expect. And then there's that "Boo".