The human fascination with the significance and patterns of numbers has given us a wide assortment of films in genres ranging from thrillers to dramas. If the subject matter receives some careful consideration when the film is being written, then the analysis of humanity’s obsession thereof can lead to compelling storytelling and an enjoyable narrative. Conversely, when a writer attempts to latch on to the cultural craze over niche beliefs surrounding the likes of the year 2012, the number 23, or, in this case, the date "11-11-11", the end result is often entirely shallow and devised with nothing more in mind than scoring some cheap thrills. At the trend’s best, the audience at least gets the thrills; 11-11-11 is not the trend’s best. Not by a long shot.
Behold Joseph (Timothy Gibbs), the stereotypical writer character of film. Plagued by nightmares of his life’s tragedies, he likes to drink, lives in a dark, messy little room and writes pages and pages of material which aren’t for his next book, but rather his personal way of working through the loss of his wife and child which has him convinced of the absence of God. He’s a shell of the man he used to be, and his desire to connect with others isn’t what it once was. After recovering from a car accident, he receives notice that his father, who lives across the pond in Spain, is on his deathbed, and that his brother has requested his company. Arriving in Spain, Joseph and his brother Samuel (Michael Landes) jump right back into their ongoing conversation about faith and doubt. But then weird stuff starts to happen. First, Joseph notices the odd recurrence of the sequence 11-11, and then creatures with ghastly visages begin showing up in the dark corners of rooms and on the camera feed of the family’s church. What does it all mean? What are these hellish creatures after? How does it tie into 11-11?
Quite simply: it really doesn’t. Or rather, the selection of 11-11-11 as the lynchpin date, even among the actual movement that really exists in our world (they call themselves 11ers), is entirely arbitrary. It’s the same simple-minded fear mongering that leads people to think 6-6-6 has any meaning or even 23. The only reason humanity cares is because they noticed a pattern, and being rational beings they feel the need to explain it. In the case of 11-11-11, the premise doesn’t even have that many legs to stand upon, never mind that the idea is rendered moot by the film’s twist ending that makes everything that comes before it both tawdry and meaningless. The idea of the film could have worked with any date as its countdown point, because the validity of the arguments for "11-11-11" is equal to any lie a filmmaker could make up about any other date having spiritual significance. All of this of course ignores that "11-11-11" requires a certain degree of selective vision, because let’s face it. The actual date is 11-11-2011. Oops, well that just ruins it.
It’s impressive when a film can come along and make the works of Roland Emmerich and Joel Schumacher look like masterstrokes of characterization and finely tuned suspense. So in that regard, kudos to you Darren Lynn Bousman, for in 11-11-11 you’ve given us an ineptly filmed and written story with hammy acting, dialogue that sounds like a knock-off Frank Miller script, and scares that are goofier than they are creepy. The atmosphere created never feels eerie or ominous; instead it feels like the generic setting of every religion-based horror ever made, whether it has to do with exorcism or battles with demons lurking in the shadows. When it’s not tripping over itself to make a story about demons waiting for their specific day to accomplish their shadowy agenda, it’s beating the audience over the head with endless conversations about religion versus atheism.
The conversation itself certainly has miles to go and has been raging for as long as man looked up at the sky and pondered their own existence, but 11-11-11 has nothing to contribute to the topic. Instead, Bousman satisfies himself with the whiny back-and-forth of two brothers, one an atheist writer the other a priest (the latter even saying something to the lengths of “what a pair we make!”), who argue high school theology curriculum in between moments where they agree there’s something evil that wants them dead. Whether Bousman actually thinks the discourse he’s staged on the subject has any merit or if he dumbed it down so nothing smart would drown out the ridiculously poor premise that it’s helping to flesh out, the end result is just a little bit insulting. Audiences can handle deeper discussions than “Bad stuff happens. No God.” and “Have faith. Yes God.” Those two points, however, are all Bousman really gives us. If we’re supposed to be distracted by the go-nowhere demon story, then Bousman overestimated the quality of his film in more ways than one.
11-11-11 is the perfect example of the kind of film eroding the horror genre. Bousman cares less about building atmosphere or any sort of genuine tension and relies solely on the jump scares. A character looks up and sees nothing, they look down and then back up and someone or something is now there. This is 11-11-11’s one and only scare tactic, and it uses it over and over. That wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t botch each and every one of those uses. 11-11-11 is about as scary as a trip to the library on the day of a senior center book club meeting. You might not hear one of the old folks as they walk into the aisle where you’re glancing over a book, but are you gonna scream in fright when you look up and see them? Not unless you’re terrified of the elderly, and even then the scream would be a bit much.
"11-11-11" opens November 11, 2011 and is rated R. Horror, Thriller. Written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Starring Michael Landes, Timothy Gibbs.
