Room 6 -- 2006 -- NR

This film had a killer opening scene. Imagine a woman lying on an operating table. You hear voiceover of her saying she's not only awake but can feel everything. She can't communicate because her body is still asleep, but her eyes are moving. She manages to get the attention of the room, and is then told that they know she is awake. They start the first incision as she screams internally.

And that's about the best scene in the movie. It's also the most suspenseful. We get a lot of weird stuff going on here where people change into odd creatures and such threatening the girl and while it's undoubtedly freaky, it never regains the same atmosphere of that opening scene.

The story follows a woman, Amy, who is deathly afraid of hospitals due to a traumatic event that occurred many years ago that she never let go of. She and her boyfriend get into a vehicle accident where he is carted off to a hospital, but she is not told which one. She frantically searches with another guy who says his sister experienced the same fate to locate this hospital, but no matter where they look, they can't find it. The police treat the report as a prank, like many people have reported an ambulance carting away their loved ones before, and it's a big joke.

Throughout the search, she runs across several weird and demonic figures whose faces change into deformed messes and look really freaky. These demonic creatures continue to deliver the message to our heroine that they have him and she can't get him back. It's really very strange and does provide a level of intrigue in the overall film.

However, the film was peppered with flaws. While a solid effort was made to develop Amy's character, a lot of her continuing development was not done very well. She had a flaw that she needed to overcome to succeed in her goal, all of which were very good. Her hospital fear was actually more of a phobia, since walking into one seem to set her off. But when we learn why her fear exists, her overcoming was way too easy. Her completing her goal was also way too easy in the end. We spend most of the film watching her scream when one of the freaks comes to play.

Beyond her journey, the movie was pretty bad. The messy little plot gets more and more convoluted as we pass into it, and a lot of things happen that just don't make a lot of sense.

Her boyfriend had gone exploring and when he was brought back, he grabbed a flashlight to hide. Not a little flashlight. A huge silver maglight that cops carry around to beat people with. This went unnoticed by the nurse helping him...somehow.

When he was exploring, we got the movie's one and only nude scene which was just over the top and unnecessary. It could have been done better and more sinisterly, rather than trying to drag the sex element into the plot, which failed miserably.

When he was trying to escape, he ran around the middle pathways of the building. He would reach a cross and instead of heading for the exit door, which we can see only a few steps beyond him, he chose to go left and come back around by the main desk. He did this over and over. I started pointing out the exit, hoping he'd hear me or something, but he would nevr go for the exit, even though he was trying to get out.

I've been picking on the boyfriend, but the guy who lost his sister hasn't gotten much attention. He gets no development at all for being the other major player in the film. He shows up, does his scene, and disappears. Probably like Jerry O'Connell did on the set. There is little information given about him, so when his big ending is revealed, there's no real connection there to get a reaction. We did have a chase scene, and it was apparently his job to stand there and let the person he is chasing get away, since he didn't even try.

Without spoiling it, it's hard to relate my eye rolling for the climax and ending. Amy went through a lot of obstacles to get to her goal, which is a good thing. What's not so good is we had an idea of how long his scene SHOULD take already, and the cuts were definitely not syncked up. She would run around for 5 minutes, he'd have a 30 second bit. We end up with a 15 minutes run thru the hospital for his 3 minute scene waiting for her.

She did battle the demons of her past, but it seemed too easy. She reached her goal and that final room was also too easy. When they make their escape, it also too easy. Nothing stands in their way; they just run out. And I don't consider these spoilers since them making it out is a fundamental concept of the genre so that doesn't spoil much. But if I told you what happened next, it would be a spoiler. Let me say this: this type of ending is reserved for the least imaginative of writers; the type who can't figure out any other way to end it, so they throw this out for a "big twist." It usually comes off cheap and this was no exception.

So this movie had a decent premise: that of a hospital that doesn't exist. It had a decent lead: a woman who has a hospital phobia. Unfortunately, the execution was terrible and the plot didn't hold up under the weight.