Review: Open Windows (2014)

The beginning of Open Windows is a classic, low-budget thriller movie, showing a low-budget sci-fi drama, throwing in a small trick of making you think that is the film. To be fair, I forgot what the film was about and the first three minutes threw me somewhat. However, I stuck through this initial stage of a movie within a movie and it was not a bad flick that followed.

The film itself could have been a rip off of Rear Window, however, the premise is based on everything being shown through a laptop screen, hence Open Windows, referring to the ‘open window’ on the MacBookesc computer. The main character is Nick Chambers played by Elijah Wood. As a superfan of the film franchise within the film, he wins a contest and has tickets to meet the film’s star Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey), but is told that this has fallen through – a deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

The films premise is quite intriguing. Working simply from the perspective of a webcam and phone cameras, the film follows an almost clichéd storyline but it does become interesting. Not being an IT professional, I couldn’t tell you that the film’s premise is implausible, but from using a phone and trying to get an internet signal in London I feel that maintaining internet video throughout industrial areas and back streets were this films take place would be very difficult (not to mention that maintaining battery life throughout would be contrary to my own laptops poor battery life).

Other than this, the film plods along through the ups and downs of being manipulated, and at the end of the film there is what can only be described as an M Night Shamalan ending, with a twist which is simply unberleivable and almost destroys the fear of having the internet used against you. The premise of the film is a look at how the internet can be used against people and how you can’t trust what is on the other end of the line. The intial idea of the thriller is actually quite worrying, but it is somewhat ruined by the end of the film and the way the story progresses.

The work on this film is not bad and, as I have said multiple times, the premise itself is rather interesting. However, the lack of budget, the hammy acting and the slow pace of the storyline, as well as the plot holes, make the film average but not great. The overall feel is that this is a student or straight-to-TV film, although interestingly it was shot in real time. But this again feels like a trope and something defined by the idea of the film, which doesn’t help the story to unfold.