David Arnold Jonathan and Addie Dade have been struggling to cope with the loss of their young son and it has caused their marriage to come to breaking point. One night, a female stranger turns up at their door and asks for help claiming that she is being stalked by people wearing masks. This tests the couple's resolve even more, especially when strange things start to happen around the house.While maybe not being the most original movie out there (and with other films having similar twists) Static is still a pretty decent suspenseful thriller in it's own right. Some people may find it a wee bit slow going, but I didn't find this at all.The story builds up quite nicely as it goes along, keeping a decent pace until it gets to the nicely done twist at the end and has some genuinely tense moments throughout.The couple are quite likable characters, although Addie (who is played by Sarah Shahi) does actually become quite annoying at times, and even though you try to understand that she has recently lost her only child, you still can't help feeling frustrated with some of her actions.Nonetheless, Static, like I say, is still a good movie to watch and as long as you don't have any unrealistic expectations of it, you should quite enjoy it like I did.

jtindahouse It's hard to review a movie like this without giving away any spoilers. The twist is too important to the outcome and quality of the movie. 'Static' revolves around a couple, seemingly living in the middle of nowhere, who have recently lost their son. The same night that the husband has completed his latest book a girl arrives on the couples doorstep asking for help from some masked men who are allegedly pursuing her. And so begins their night of terror.For the next 70 odd minutes, we follow the couple in their attempts to escape the masked men, as we would always expect to do in this type of movie, however this time somethings different. Somethings not right. The masked men don't seem to be posing any real threat to the couple. They are unarmed and seem to show no real urgency when given an opportunity to capture/inflict harm on either member of the couple. At the time I was putting this down to poor filmmaking, however I would later learn it was to all make sense.So the movie continues with the usual minor twists being revealed ie. the girl at the door is one of them, they've been watching the couple on surveillance all along etc. when something else begins to bug me. What is the point of the dead son storyline. Is it just more average filmmaking trying to add depth to the characters, as in 'Vacancy', or does the storyteller have a little trick up his sleeve to conquer all my doubts.I was delighted to find it was the latter. The twist being that couple we were following all along were actually the ghosts who were struggling to move on, and the masked men (and woman) were the ghost busters, if you will. Not a completely original twist (I won't ruin any other films for you), but what I liked about it was that it didn't cheat. Not only in hindsight did it make sense (as much as a ghost story ever can), but it left clues along the way. When a mask is tried on by one member of the couple we see that these aren't gas masks as much as they are for lack of a better term 'ghostspotting' masks. There's also the above mentioned points about the masked intruders never motioning to cause harm to the couple, the male member of the couple's seemingly dead body seen with gunshot wounds in the opening frames of the movie and many more. But the one I like the most is actually the tagline for the movie, "If you hear them coming, you're already dead." There is was staring me in the face on the DVD cover before I'd even opened the case. Very clever.Overall a very good film. I hope a lot of people don't turn it off halfway through out of frustration with what may appear to be poor writing and get through to the end when things are explained. Nothing life changing, but certainly a lot more fun to watch than a lot of these lesser known thriller/horrors are.

Robert W. Awhile ago I realized that pouring through every movie I come across wasn't working for me. I was watching so much crap and turning most of it off and it was ruining one of my favourite hobbies. So I swore I wouldn't watch anymore obviously bad, unknown horror films. But Static read well so I decided to break my own rule. Thank goodness!! This was a total surprise!! It reminded me of The Strangers mixed with a little Stephen King and it was a solid thriller that was one of the better movies I have seen in the last couple of weeks. The film just does a fantastic job of getting under your skin and really creeping you out. Yes, it is probably a little bit predictable and has that air of the heroes going this way when they should go that but horror is a genre of predictability and there are few unique ideas left. Regardless, if you love horror then you love the tried and true recipe and this film works extremely well. In some respects I could have done without the ending (something other IMDb reviewers are complaining about) but it also worked well and I didn't see it coming, however, we have seen this ending time and time again and has sort of played out its shock value. But ignore that or accept it because it isn't a bad ending and it doesn't take away from the edge of your seat thrills leading up to it.Since his run on the hit show Heroes Milo Ventimiglia has done some bizarre indie flicks. I wasn't sure if this would be a bizarre turn for him but he is very good as the grieving father and husband who is also a writer trying to protect his wife. His character is decently developed and he makes a good lead for the film. He felt like a Stephen King character (and that is by no means a bad thing) and he carried it well. His wife is played by Sarah Shahi who also does a great job as the tortured mother dealing with the loss of their son. You will feel her emotions and her terror and she makes a decent scream queen. The chemistry between them is very good and convincing and both of them carry the film very well. Sarah Paxton (who I enjoy but she doesn't do a lot) has a mostly small role as the mysterious girl who ends up on their doorstep. She is very good and you immediately get a sense there is more to her and what she is doing there. Her character was used sparingly which made her more mysterious and added to the tension of the film.Newcomer Todd Levin flies in the face of my cardinal rule of not directing and writing your own material because he is a co-writer and directs this and I would guess that we will absolutely be seeing more from him very soon. He has a style and he does a lot with what was likely a very low budget. He uses the atmosphere, the isolated home, the countryside to instill a feeling of being trapped and hunted. There are even some genuinely real jump moments in the movie and some truly terrifying scenes involving our intruders in gas masks which made for some intense moments. The film's pacing was quite good especially for an indie movie although some of the more emotional scenes got almost over-dramatic. I imagine its hard not to overact when you're the focus of the film and there isn't a lot of special effects to carry the story. Still, a first rate indie thriller that absolutely should be checked out. I noticed this is also being released in 3D-Blu Ray and I hate 3D enough already but there is NOTHING in this movie that would be made better by 3D. I can't imagine why they would ever do that. But if it makes more people watch it than bonus to them. Do yourself a favour and check it out!! 8.5/10

Eagle H. I decided to watch this one because of the rating it had here. It's a fairly good movie, but it is way too slow. What it does well is keep you guessing all the way to the very end. You don't know who the girl is. You don't know why they are after her. Then, you don't know why they are after them. The more I think about the movie the more I like it. However, the end leaves you feeling somewhat disappointed. I watched the entire movie picking things I thought were wrong with the movie, only to find out in the end that they all make sense. This one is worth watching, but you wont be raving about how good it was later.