After finding a strange Indian relic boarded up on Alcatraz, the research team studying the remains find themselves under attack by a strange curse affecting the others on the island and force them to battle it off to survive.
This was an effective supernatural affair. One of the best things about the film is that it has a really creepy location and makes full use of it. Alcatraz looks really great here, as the washed-out color used for the interior scenes within the walls are a great touch to make it feel really isolated and creepy. There's also the layout of the prison, as the layout of the halls and the fact that it's all underground makes it dark and creepy as well which adds an air of menace to the film. Another strong point impacting this is it's really quite understandable how it can play mind-tricks on the people here without having to introduce the virus subplot. While it's really creepy on its own, the fact that the physical evidence from the face-peeling in the mirror to the bloody nose and finally the hardcore vomiting, it really gives the story some power and makes it even better. When it starts to get into the later half, which is mostly just a never-ending action scene, allows for some fun to be had. There's several chases through the facility that are pretty much spot on, from the battles in the infirmary with the possessed and out into the prison walk-ways while another big highlight scene from the scenes down in the medical lab where it all starts makes this one quite appealing that there's several impressive chasing scenes in perhaps the best part. The last really good part to this is the film's blood and gore, which is good enough here to hold this up quite nicely even if there wasn't a whole lot really wrong in this one. This one here is mostly plagued by the really hard way it goes about unraveling the plot as rather than giving the simple story it takes at least four different opportunities to get it all out. Even the ones in the film have a hard time, as several of the conversations are started over other conversations based around explaining the previously-explained reasons. The fact that it's a simple story is the point as for whatever reason, the virus angle doesn't feel that threatening and would've been fine had they used the ghost angle cemented with the virus thread, but it's all rather poorly done and doesn't seem all that intimidating. The only other issue here is the rather obvious amount of time here with the low- budget as there's a rather obvious presence throughout from the location, from the kills whenever they could be seen and there's just little elsewhere here that makes this stand-out from that factor. Otherwise, there's a lot to like here.
Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and drug use.
