Flooding (2000)

Rating: E

Dir: Todd Portugal
Star: Brenna Gibson, Lauren Bailey, Greg Fawcett, Dominic Dirito

The director of this film is at least up-front about this being a Hitchcock homage (most obviously, to Rear Window), so I will be equally up-front about him lacking the writing and directing talent to pull such a conceit off successfully. The former is perhaps most woefully obvious, and the minute this finished, we were picking script holes, most notably why the villain concocts a convoluted plan to get at the heroine, rather than walking into the house and killing her. There also is not nearly enough going on: save for the last fifteen minutes, it’s spread very thinly, leading to long, dead periods.

Joyce (Gibson) has stayed inside since her husband was shot (apparently without witnesses, even though it was with a handgun in a crowded fairground!): into her home come the usual bunch of dubious characters found in psychological thrillers – neighbour, therapist, cops, one-night stands recruited from the personal adverts. The long psychological counselling sessions were particularly tedious, and pointless too. We came up with the idea that all her traumas were staged by her parents as shock therapy; they’re not, but that’d be more interesting and plausible than the grand finale, when it eventually comes. None of the actors are convincing, and while the idea of a film restricted to one house is good (and cheap!), the movie casually discards Joyce’s condition and leaves. Wouldn’t be surprised if you do, too.