Having watched this film, the only notable thing I can say about it is the lesbian relationships and how the relationships between girls are handled, and how its so rare to see in horror movies, or movies in general to be a focus. But even then, you have the Whispering Corridor movies, which have handled such matters far better, while being more interesting than this.
The acting is fine, serviceable I'd say, but not great. The music, though I don't remember any of it was fine, due to it not annoying me or thinking any choices were bad or distracting. The plot though, is not very good.
Things are pretty interesting at first, a girl who locks herself away and students seem to be infatuated with her, then a photo shows up and a ghostly apparition of her shows up and then people start disappearing. Nothing groundbreaking, but you want to know what happens with a setup like that. Unfortunately, none of the characters really stand out, and are mostly forgettable, and by the third act when things are getting revealed, you start to realise that it's rather stupid and some character motivations start to make a lot less sense. There are no scares here really, no real tension, except maybe with the girls in a 'will they, wont they' thing and some ham-fisted symbolism, no thrills, not even that malaise that occurs in some horror films, where it's not necessarily terrifying you, but you still feel uncomfortable. I'd say it barely qualifies as even creepy.
At times this movie feels like a low rent Whispering Corridors knockoff(where some of the same criticisms could be leveled at some movies in the series, but they at least have better plots with more engaging characters), with very loose ties to its license. The plot and overall tone feel quite trite with a been there, done that bland feeling. It does nothing new, and what it does, it does adequately well and nothing more.
Watch the Whispering Corridors movies instead if you want a horror movie tackling lesbian relationships or tackling female relationships within an all girls environment. If you want to see the Fatal Frame series on the big screen, well buy a projector and get a PS2 and Wii, because you wont get it here. And no, I haven't approached this movie as a fan of the game and wanting to see it represented in movie form, I just wanted to watch a good movie.
