Circle of Eight

Now available on DVD

Cast:



Austin Highsmith as Jessica



Ryan Doom as Evan



Josh Kelly as Bale



Katie Lowes as Elaine



DJ Qualls as Randall

Directed by Stephen Cragg

Review:

Circle of Eight started out as a film venture financed by Paramount Pictures in association with video outlet Blockbuster, social networking site MySpace and soft drink company Mountain Dew. I caught the first 4-5 episodes when they initially debuted on MySpace back in October, but had a difficult time following the story in that format because it felt more like a feature that was intentionally cut down into episodes rather than a series that would normally adhere to the “cliffhanger” formula that most shows cater to.

Now, Paramount Home Entertainment has released a DVD version of Circle of Eight, collecting all 10 episodes instead as a full length feature film with additional footage not included in the original on-line broadcast. Unfortunately, while the story features nuggets of good ideas and hints at great possibilities, even in feature length form it still falls short.

The story centers around Jessica (Austin Highsmith), a new resident in The Dante, an old downtown Los Angeles building complex filled with a cast of eccentric (and often overly nosey) neighbors. Once settled, Jessica begins seeing strange things in the halls, including what she believes to be the corpses of her new neighbors, yet upon further investigation, the bodies are never anywhere to be found and her neighbors later re-appear, safe and sound. Is it all in Jessica’s head? Or is something supernatural at work here in The Dante?

If you can hold out to the ending, you may find the answer to the above, but most likely, you’ll be as frustrated as I was by the time you get there.

Circle of Eight is fine from a technical stand point. It’s beautiful shot and directed, it looks far more like a theatrical feature here on DVD than it did on my computer screen in it’s original incarnation and sure enough, if you’re going to do a story about a spooky building, might as well shoot in Los Angeles well-known (and recognizable) Linda Vista Hospital. Even the acting is fine with Austin Highsmith carrying the film as a solid lead. It’s just the story itself is boring and doesn’t really go anywhere worthwhile.

It’s never abundantly clear why her neighbors are immediately so hostile towards Jessica. And I know the “twist” helps explain this (somewhat), but for us as the viewer watching this for the first time, her reactions seem illogical. On several occasions, people just burst in and out of Jessica’s apartment unannounced. DJ Qualls plays the creepy Randall, the neighbor adjacent to her window who’s constantly shooting Jessica via his camcorder. Moments later he bursts into her apartment and introduces himself nervously while still shooting, and while she’s annoyed, Jessica never responds in the way I would. (Which is, if someone bursts into my new apartment uninvited, I’m reaching for the baseball bat and asking questions later!) More importantly, why can no one be straight with Jessica? “What’s going on here?” “You’ll understand… soon.” An hour and 15 minutes worth of that gets incredibly frustrating really fast.

The other issue is all the red herrings that turn out to mean nothing. I’m not sure (once you learn the twist) why the neighbors bothered to fool Jessica into thinking they were dead? To scare her? What’s that have to do with her decision later on? Why the emphasis that she’s not allowed to go into the room with the buildings records when finally doing so explains nothing? The neighbors seem to act weird and eccentric just for the sake of being weird and eccentric and Jessica responds like it’s no biggie, often causing what I would consider unintentional laughs. Also, one of the additional scenes that is definitely not in the on-line version comes early on when two of the hottest lesbians you’ve ever seen for no reason disrobe and start making out in one of the buildings halls while creepy Qualls looks on. Are they even tenants? Did they sneak into the building? There’s a reason these “circle of eight” are the one’s in this building, so why are these two suddenly here and never to be seen from again? For a gratuitous random sex scene?

I can go on and on, but the bottom line is the basic premise sounds interesting. Even the conclusion, while revealed in sloppy fashion seems like a neat twist. Problem is the hour and 15 minutes worth of movie you have to sit through to get to it doesn’t even remotely add up to what they tell you. It’s like they thought up the twist and worked backwords, never quite making sure all the pieces fit together properly. Maybe they thought “Oh this is for the web, no one will notice.” Honestly, I got more perspective in what the entire film means in Austin’s explanation of the end during our Shock interview earlier this month than I did actually watching it. Check it out at your own risk.