This movie is a very intense psychological thriller filmed in very grey and depressive images and words that create a perfect atmosphere for this doom slow paced movie. The movie seems to be a simple vengeance story, but it goes far beyond this. Let me warn you first: There are not many torture scenes in this movie, so if you expect some gore stuff here, you may not be satisfied at all in the end. The title and trailer could be somehow misleading.

The film has in fact a very philosophical touch and questions about the sense of life and death as well as vengeance or forgiveness. The movie shows how difficult such topics are and has almost some documentary influences as it shows the reactions of the society, the police, the victim's families. But there are also metaphoric elements in this movie like the scenes with the dead deer body that represents the dead body of the raped and killed daughter that lead us slowly towards a melancholic end that many find unsatisfying but which fits perfectly to the whole atmosphere and intention of the movie. The story is surprisingly realistic. All those points I really like about this great Quebecker movie.

What I rather dislike is that there is something like a highlight missing. When the father has kidnapped the murderer of his daughter and the police is looking for him, you expect that the tension and action raises, that each character's profoundness may be developed and that there are some disturbing twists but nothing happens at all. The movie concentrates on the profoundness of the main character but I think that the characters of the murderer, the police officer or the kidnapper's wife could have been more developed. The movie also concentrates too much on the logical follow-up of the story and the tension goes really down at some point in the movie as there are no real surprises or turning points like in the heavier and more disturbing shocker "5150 on Elm Street", a movie based on the novel by the same author as this one. This movie's strength is its depressive atmosphere and the main actor's brilliant acting but it has too much of a one man show.

If you are looking for an alternative depressive psycho thriller with some philosophical elements, I highly recommend this movie for you. But if you are looking for a bloody shocker with a twisted ending, just forget about it.

This is probably one of the most intense and interesting German movies of the last years. It has everything that a good movie needs: Credible characters and actors, dramatic sequences, a lot of action and tension, a philosophical touch, elements touching romances, friendships and rivalries, an intense atmosphere and a great showdown.

But the best thing is that this is not a simple good movie, but a piece of German culture and history as it tells a true story. The movie is both entertaining and teaching without losing its neutrality towards the very problematic topic. In a country of severe political correctness like Germany, this was probably the most important and difficult thing to consider in this movie. The fact that the actors do not even seem to be actors and fill completely the role of the real people who had lived in the seventies in Western Germany, raise the authenticity and credibility of this movie a lot. Especially Moritz Bleibtreu, who already played great roles in the German cult movies "Knockin' on heaven's door" and "Das Experiment", does once again a brilliant job here.

Another great thing is that you do not even need to know the historical German background of the movie, because every thing is explained and shown in this movie without making this movie too dry and transforming it into a boring documentary movie. As comparable groups and events exist in other countries (in Canada or Québec, it has been the FLQ that is very similar), it is not difficult to watch this movie, understand it and get addicted to it.

I would recommend this film to anyone who likes political and historical topics, that is interested in foreign cultures or who simply wants to see an intense and action filled drama with credible actors.

I remember that I have seen this mini-series on an autumn night because there was nothing else on the television. They showed the whole three parts of this mini-series in one single movie. I didn't expect much from this film and I began really slow paced like most of the traditional thrillers of the seventies but the more the movie advanced, the more interesting, disturbing and intense it became. I remember that there were many interesting twists in the movie. The best thing about this movie, when we watch it nowadays and not in the time of the sixties when this mini-series has been a real big blockbuster in Western Germany, is the creepy atmosphere created by the black and white shooting that gives this movie an original charm.

If you like the legendary German Edgar Wallace movies of the sixties and the British Agatha Christie movies that came out in the same decade, you will surely like "Melissa" too. This movie is nothing mind blowing or shocking any more nowadays, but at least an interesting piece of history and culture and a very charming, atmospheric and entertaining long movie.

Once I came home from a party with some friends and just wanted to relax and watch the television before I would go to bed. I switched from one channel to the other and found this movie. Although I had missed the first fifteen minutes of the film and my television magazine rated the movie as a rather average stuff, I decided to watch it and got drowned into a really creepy atmosphere that made me forget the funny evening with my friends. I got completely addicted to this movie until the very end. As it was a low budget movie, written by English writers and directors, played by mostly American actors and turned in the beautiful landscapes of Canada, I didn't expect that I would be able to buy a copy of this movie, but in over three years after I have watched this movie for the first time, I couldn't get it out of my mind and finally decided to look for a DVD copy and got it a few weeks later. I was able to listen to the whole movie this time and I liked it as much as the first time.

There are many special things that distinguish this movie from other ordinary psycho thrillers or horror movies.

First of all, the actors were all quite unknown at the time when this movie has been done, but they all do an excellent job, especially Kris Lemche in the role of Rex. It could have been a big risk to take only amateurs or unknown actors to make a movie with only seven actors in it and where two of them only appear a few minutes. But each actor plays a very special and unique character and has a strong presence and the concept works very well.

The second thing that makes this movie so special is the way it is filmed. It is filmed in a "Big Brother" style with many web cams and little cameras and this way creates a very intimate and realistic atmosphere. You are able to feel with the characters and the natural style of the movie makes it more shocking and intense than what I would rather call paranormal fantasy movies with weird creatures.

The third great thing about the movie is that you can't really figure out how it ends. In fact, the movie ends with a surprising double twist. What distinguishes this movie from the Hollywood horror movies is that there is - and I think I don't tell too much when I say this - a really disturbing and haunting ending instead of a happy end.

The only negative points are that the movie has a beginning that is maybe a little bit too slow paced and that there could have been more shocking elements that happen instead of putting the whole tension in the very last night the five people live in the house. I also think that the women in the movie could have done a better and more profound job and that the man actors are way better and save the movie somehow.

But all those three positive points plus an excellent atmosphere make this movie a very special one and I am even looking forward to see this movie again or present it to some of my friends. There are more and more reviews of this movie on this website and I think that this film is really worth the interest.

This movie is probably my favourite psycho thriller of all times. The film inspired me even to begin again to write novels after I have watched it. I have seen this movie at least three times and I get always drowned in a very special atmosphere when I listen to it and never get bored watching it.

I know that the idea of an isolated group in an isolated place where a murderer is killing one after the other is nothing new indeed. But that is the only critical point about this movie, that it is nothing innovating, surprising or unique. It is not the originality that makes this movie one of the best ones of its genre to me, but its intense atmosphere and the characters realistic behaviours.

The rest of the movie is just brilliant. From the beginning on, there is a good tension and dark atmosphere in the movie. The characters are all doing a very solid job even if they are not playing the roles of their lives. But especially LL Cool J, who has often been criticized as a weak actor and Val Kilmer, about whom many people think that his days of glory have passed a long time ago, do a credible job and are the most famous actors of this movie. Only Patricia Velasquez is doing a less convincing job after all.

This movie takes the time to introduce each one of the characters but doesn't take no prisoners and gets you quite fast in a dark mood. When the murderer begins its bloody work, you are always thinking and analyzing what might happen next and it is the original and stunning way the murderer chooses how to kill each victim and how he or she announces when to kill the next one what makes this movie very interesting. Each time I watch this movie, I am not able anymore to stop watching the movie or even take a break, it addicts me completely and my eyes seem to be glued on the screen. There is a lot of realistic psychology in the way each one of the characters acts as the tension raises. There are many twists and riddles to be solved in this movie and you get a surprising and satisfying showdown in the end of this intense movie.

If you like classical psycho thrillers, you will surely not live a deception with this one and get one hundred minutes of intense entertaining.