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Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An effective opening scene shows 10 year old Jenny see her sister murdered. Jump to Jenny (Brucato) in college where she is afraid to leave her dorm room. She becomes involved with Gavin (Ellington) and reluctantly agrees to a college scavenger hunt around New York City. A killer is using the game to track and kill the contestants. In what amounts to a modern slasher film, the set up and premise is a good one for a slasher film. Too bad it's 2009 and not 1980, because this movie misses every opportunity to be scary, fun and entertaining. Elizabeth Lucas directs like she is shooting a modern sitcom not a horror film. There is a little gore thrown in at the final minute but the lame acting and boring characters will make you lose your interest way before the killer can even get started.

Agreeing to participate in a scavenger-hunt game for her college, a troubled woman learns that her and her friends are being targeted by a vicious maniac who may or may not be responsible for her past and try to figure out his connection to the game to save the others.This is an incredibly bland and uninteresting slasher, if it really could be called one as this one is just a rather dull and agonizingly slow thriller masquerading as a horror film. By making the kills all pop up in the last half-hour, that forces us into the boring game for the first hour, and it's not in the slightest bit interesting to watch as this one just tends to wander around to each of the contestants not doing anything to hold our interest, as there's no unfurling mystery to be found in the clues, they just so happen to get along with the game and overall it just comes off as weak, uninteresting and even misses several prime moments of excitement (messing up a couple screwing in the woods being the prime example) before it gets to a rather lame, bland finale that's imminently predictable and not in the least bit interesting. The kills are bloodier than expected (yet don't deviate from a brandished knife as the weapon) and the central premise has some legs, but this one just isn't worth it.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

There was an episode on "CSI--New York" during the past month with a very similar plot to RED HOOK. Despite having just an ad-shortened 38 minutes or so to work with, CSI-NY's Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and his crew got about five times as much accomplished entertainment-wise as the bumbling New York City police detective Lt. Tom Fox (Terrence Mann) and the rest of the RED HOOK cast managed to provide in 85 minutes. It's a sad commentary when an "unrated" feature film--where presumably anything goes--comes off as duller and less sexy than a prime-time network TV offering on a similar subject. While RED HOOK is billed as a horror flick, it's a sure fire bet to put the viewer to sleep more quickly than a CBS police procedural aimed as bed-time fare for the 60- to 90-year-old demographic. Gavin (Tate Ellington), the perverter of a lame Welcome Week scavenger hunt for the RED HOOK collegians, offs about half the campus, with less a sense of plausible threat than that created in just a few seconds of screen time by the twisted frat pledge master in the CSI episode, whose game playing is intended to kill no one. RED HOOK may spray a little crimson fake blood, but it offers little to hook the horror buff's attention.

I liked this low-budget film, but it wasn't what I expected. From the package, you're expecting a slasher, but this is more like Scream. I'm a New Yorker, and they really got the feel of the city, from the mundane to the scary (beware: there are lots of "in jokes" for the New Yorkers). The story is a bit uneven, but some of the acting is really good. Brucato plays that strange creepy introverted "girl with a past" with grating accuracy. What's crazy is that I think lots of the actors are really musical theater types - I mean Terrence Mann is on Broadway in the Addams Family right now. Not your typical horror cast. I guess you don't often see horror films directed by women, but that surely accounts for some of what makes the vibe of this film unique. Not gross scary. More like go-on-a-date scary. If you're willing to take it on its own terms, I'd recommend it. Bring your girl friend.