A new nurse starts working in a crappy old, dilapidated hospital of people with traumatic brain injuries who are completely unresponsive. In fact, that is the requirement for being admitted - no response to external stimuli. There is a scary head nurse and a creepy doctor who is doing something in the basement that he doesn't want anyone to know about. So, it's a setup for a scary movie.
Sharni Vinson is the young, fresh face of nursing. When we first meet her, it's at the interview for the job, and she impresses the doctor enough that he decides to hire her on the spot. We are supposed to be sympathetic to her, but she makes some odd decisions (like coming here in the first place) and it's kind of hard to agree with a lot of them. She is pretty (in a general Australian kind of way) so you can still generate some sympathy.
Rachel Griffiths plays the scary, uptight head nurse who is very strict and appears to move in complete silence. She is stern and has a colored past that is referred to a few times without detail. She plays the part well enough, but it's about as cookie-cutter a part as you can get. I'm not sure it takes a whole heap of talent to do it, but that is the role, and - again - she plays it fine.
Charles Dance is the reason you pay your rental fee to see this movie. You may remember him as The Hand of the King in Game of Thrones. He's a superb actor, and he bares his acting chops well enough here to make the crazy doctor seem scary and yet respected. His character is clearly experimenting on the patients in a Frankenstein-esque attempt to do something spectacular, but it is unclear for most of the movie how much progress he might have made.
Jackson Gallagher probably thought this was a big break. After all, he plays the character of Patrick in the movie Patrick. Clearly, he's going to have a lot to do and acting out the wazoo - he may even have a nude scene! Well, he has a nude scene, but he doesn't have a speaking role, and he's laying mostly naked on a table for most of the film.
Direction was okay
Acting was good
Story was weak
Effects were not great
Dialog was very weak
1.5/5