The Clique

A teen slasher movie, one of those where a mostly pre-bonded group goes to a remote location (driving along the much-filmed Angeles Crest), where phones and power can be conveniently disrupted, for sex and taunting and the de rigeur Truth-or-Dare game. Actually pretty well acted but flawed -- fatally for me -- by two elements. One is the idea that a girl who could alibi a murder suspect would not only keep from doing so rather than admit the relationship to her friends but couldn't have done so to the police on a confidential basis (didn't the suspect name her?). Second, the endless blackness on the screen in which major characters are offed and the story reaches its climax. Come on, folks, there are techniques for conveying that the action is happening in the dark and still letting us see. Won't be watching this again (or listening to the gasps and crashes while staring endlessly at a dead black screen).