At this point one would think after all these movies, Eli Roth would learn how to make a good movie.
Unfortunately, he didn't so he doesn't.
While the premise is fine and plot could be salvaged with someone better at writing, the whole movie is quickly spiraling into your average stupid slasher movie.
They probably tried to make a new Scream like movie, but failed.
There is so many, many (not important) characters in this that waste screentime, so many unused chekhov guns that is not even funny.
Even worse, there are many plot dead ends, which is somehow worse than having a good ol' plot hole. For example - part about store camera backups. It looks like an important part of the plot but no, it just resolves itself in the minutes after being mentioned. And it was resolved by one of the characters just watching those backups at some random point, concentrating on the dumbest part of it, printing some photos and going to police. What?
Having so many unncessary characters is probably seen on paper like having so many options for viewer to think who is the killer - "Oooh, no, who it is, ooohh". But in reality it just wastes screen time and the only thing getting killed is any hope for plot coherence.
Which brings me to the pacing of the movie. It's done so amateursh and incompetent that I go back to the first sentence - how did this dude didn't learn after all these years to make a coherent story flow? There is no sense of time in the movie, no sense of space, no sense of plot order. Things just happen.
One of the worst things a movie can do is to make viewer constantly think "That doesn't seem right/That's stupid/What?" while watching a movie.
The ending also looks super slapped on, contrived at best.
It's not the worst movie ever, or from this year, but it ain't good. There is a solid horror movie in there somewhere but that movie is not written, directed and produced by Eli Roth.
