YellowBrickRoad

Despite us tagging along the trail for days, we feel closer to the landscape than to the characters.

Meticulously paced, methodical in the way it delivers its information, this film isn't so much scary as it is deeply disconcerting, everything moving towards a somewhat inevitable conclusion that had me nonetheless squirming.

"Yellowbrickroad" is without personality. It's competently made, but the cast and direction are just bland.

As cheap horror fare goes, YellowBrickRoad emphasizes imagination over gore. This is good, because the gore here is somewhat laughable, while the imagination is just creepy enough to be effective.

The film is caught in the fatal demographic desert between the Scream and Baghead crowds -- neither funny nor quirky enough to sustain interest during its long march.

Co-writer/directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton miss as many opportunities as they develop here, but they maintain the mystery and ratchet up suspense like seasoned pros.

What hurts the picture is its insistence on dragging The Wizard of Oz into its thematic DNA.

A well-shot, multi-dimensional, and unexpectedly cerebral little horror story.

A disturbing and unsettling bit of word to the wise that sometimes the unsolvable should remain unsolved...

Clever and packed with smart characters.