Rating : - Wooden acting leads to a lackluster horror movie.
"Don't Open the Door" is a movie about a young woman, Amanda Post, who returns to her grandmother's house to care for her while she's ill. Ms. Post has a dark past in that her mother was mysteriously murdered when she was 13 years old. In the beginning, there are no lack of suspects, but it becomes very easy to determine who the killer is about half-way through the movie. In "Don't Open the Door", the killer is constantly calling Ms. Post driving her mad and scaring the hell out of her...these scenes aren't very convincing because the acting is wooden and generic in quality, and you know who the killer is and he just doesn't elicit horror in a sophisticated horror movie viewer...quite frankly, I simply found the killer to be unconvincing insofaras his prowess as a horror movie villain is concerned. You don't have to be an indestructible force like Michael Myers to be an effective horror movie villain, but you do have to inspire horror or fear in the audience "a la" Norman Bates and a Kurt Duncan (while Bates and Duncan are not physically powerful, they are terrifying because they are mad, dark-natured and very dangerous). The plot is sufficient, but the underlying motives driving the action fail to provide the necessary support for a horror movie. In other words, the movie is lacking in suspense, scares and mystery that is necessary to a horror movie's effectiveness. Sometimes, low budget horror movies can be good, but the acting has to be half-way decent or the horror is never brought home to the audience...such is the case with "Don't Open the Door". While the title sounds good, "Don't Open the Door" is of a categorically poor quality and the result is a weak viewing experience.