Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

moonspinner55 Widower dad, nervous and self-conscious about his ability to raise two preteens by himself, takes the youngsters into the Colorado mountains for a vacation at a cabin once owned by his deceased wife's father. Combination ghost story/mental breakdown thriller is pretty much scuttled by a confused, jumbled screenplay, full of dead ends. Eric McCormack heads the small cast, which also includes two child actors whose performances are utterly flat, and Donnelly Rhodes as a weathered sheriff with a bad cough. McCormack gives it a try, but there's no character for him to play, and his constant running from room to room grows wearisome (and negates any suspense in the scenario). Andrew Currie is responsible for the mediocre direction, from a thin, derivative script by Michaelbrent Collings. There's really only one well-directed sequence in the picture: a flashback to the wife's death. Genre entry had potential as a jittery, who's-in-the house scare-flick, but results are ultimately tepid. *1/2 from ****

rooprect "Barricade" is a well produced, atmospheric chiller with excellent acting, human characters, good cinematography, some creepy Kubrickian moments, a great location and an engaging premise. The only thing I didn't like was the plot reveal which felt like a major letdown after all the above.But who knows, you might like it. Or at least, you might have a good time waiting to see if it's really as bad as everyone says. Note: that's the last I'll say about the ending because I don't want to ruin it (unlike the current top 2 reviews which spoil it in the first sentence. Seriously? How is spoiling a movie helpful?).This is the first time I've seen Eric McCormick who plays the father, and I thought he was fantastic. He bears a striking resemblance, as well as a similar likable quality, to Sam Rockwell, and in fact I kept thinking maybe it was his twin brother or something. If you like Sam Rockwell flicks (like "Moon") you'll enjoy McCormick's delivery. He plays a good lead here: a father of 2 young kids forced to protect them from creepy happenings in a remote corner of the world. Despite losing his grip of reality as events unfold, he remains more or less smart and resourceful.The two kids were excellent as well, and their fear added to the mood without being melodramatic as young actors sometimes are (I'm thinking mainly of my own attempts at making "horror movies" when I was 12, you don't want to know).The atmosphere is very chilly, figuratively as well as literally. Filmed over the course of 4 days in the snowy wilderness near Vancouver, the filmmakers did an excellent job of conveying a claustrophobic feeling of terror despite being in the wide open north.Really, this is a very well made movie except for the actual story driving it. Oh, there's one other thing I didn't care for: all the false scares in the first half hour. Some were effective, and I actually jumped once, but after being tricked a few too many times I started disconnecting from the action."Barricade" is one of those creepy films where you don't know what the threat is until the end, and this puts it in line with some excellent films like "The Others", "The Changeling", "Moscow Zero", or the mack daddy of twist endings, "The Sixth Sense". But in this case the story didn't have a corkscrew twist so much as it had a itty bitty bend.

Peaceful211 *** Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! ***If you've seen the movie and are confused, here are my observations. I want to watch this movie again for more details (yes, really!). :-) Flashbacks show a lot-- details that add up in the end, though not easily, nor entirely. But they do piece together.While seated in his office at home, recording notes, Terrance recommends a prescription of the exact drug he then abuses throughout the movie-- recommends it to a woman who's husband has died and she is not dealing with it well.The alcohol and drug combo cause blackouts throughout ("It's time for lunch" spoken at night, etc.). The hallucinations begin VERY early on. He likely did not hit a wolf with is car, which then ferociously growled at him, and in seconds is unable to move and dying. He his something, but not a mostly-white wolf. The woman's face in window is another early hallucination. His kids could not wake him up their first morning in the cabin because he's passed out.Blackouts/delusions/paranoid-- all part of the sum plot.He killed daughter Cynthia in the cabin's kitchen--flashback shows her there, quite dead, as she says, "Daddy, you're hurting me." It's a quick line, easy to miss- but it lets us know what he did, just with no details.Dad drowned son in ice bath after again hallucinating that random arms were coming out of the tub trying to drown *him* (likely son freezing and terrified and wanting to get out!) while attempting to reduce the fever.At some point, he put them both kids in the double bed like they were sleeping (after dressing his son-- see the huge man's sweater on boy when he's lying there).We are eventually shown that he beat up Mr. House and locked him in the attic, duct taped and tied. However, when Terrance "finds" Mr. House later, the old man must, in reality, be dead from hypothermia. He was very sick, the attic had to be freezing, no food or water...But he (half) remembered what he'd done.At some point later Dad buried the kids-- hence, two crucifixes in the ground before he then buries the stuffed animal (named Jack the Ripper-- a serial killer-- hint hint) after his delusion that his daughter Cynthia asked him to bury it. In his mind, he buried only a stuffed toy, not both his children.I believe that the entire end scene-- cops, dog, ambulance, and all, is completely made up in Terrance's mind. He realized that he'd locked sweet old Mr. House up in the attic (and likely, House died), that both children are dead (from illness, he thinks), and guilt spurs a powerful story for him--- that Mr. House is saved by the police, that his kids are alive and rescued along with him, and that he is just on his way to the hospital on a sunny day.In reality, possibly(!), no one knew to look for Mr. House there, and Terrance is still in the cabin where he's killed his children and an old man in a state of grief, paranoia, and drug/alcohol-induced hallucinations and delusions.That's what I could get, plot-wise. More sure of some things than others! I Loved the cast in this movie. That's the 7 stars. But as many have noted, it's far too visually dark for far too long and the confusion and total chaos gets old...

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** After the tragic death of his wife Leah's ,Jody Thompson, Terry Shade, Eric McCormack, decides to take his two children Cynthia & Jake, Lonner Dwelly & Ryan Grantham, to the great outdoors for a Christmas vacation. Terry a workaholic was very distant to his children when Leah was alive and wants to make that up after her death. It in fact turned out to be a vacation in hell with Terry flipping out and losing his grasps of reality. The setting takes place in this out of the way cabin cut off from civilization as well as phone service. It's there during a major blizzard that Terry and the children experience a series of encounters that are out of this world that in the end drives them out of their minds.Much like the Stanley Kubrick 1980 classic "The Shinning" the film "Barricade" has to do with for the most part a man, Terry, slowly going out of his mind due to severe isolation as he barricades and puts himself and his family into a bunker like existence. The film goes back and forth to when Leah was alive and after she died that gives us an understanding of Terry deteriorating mental state. It's much later that we get a glimpse of what's really happening to Terry who by then is more then ready to spend the rest of his life in the funny farm. Which after what he went through in the movie he's more then qualified to be in.Even though the movie ends abruptly we still can see what trials and tribulations Terry went through. He wasn't really a bad guy but his brain had been so fried and messed up that only shock treatment and a padded cell were the only way he could be cured. That's before he'll end up killing somebody which could very well be himself.