You have to give Australian director Phillip Noyce (“Dead Calm,” “Sliver,” “Salt”) and screenwriter Chris Sparling credit for two things. They chose to make a movie about a school shooting and did so within a real-time presentation. Coupling such a volatile sub-genre with a style of filmmaking most people regard as a gimmick is a huge gamble to take—both creatively and ethically. Sadly, at almost every turn, with every roll, the result is snake eyes.
Noyce and Sparling go one step further by including just three on-screen characters who are both seen and heard, and they fill the remainder with disembodied voices via smart phone. This is also something of another micro sub-genre effort, which has really only worked well once: “Buried” from 2010 starring Ryan Reynolds which was also penned by Sparling.
