Horror Movie Review: 11/11/11 (2011)

11/11/11 is a cheap knockoff of The Omen but that is not the only bad thing about this movie. Coming from The Asylum, directed by Keith Allan and starring Jon Briddell, Erin Coker, and Hayden Byerly. 11/11/11 is a dry, humourless, low-budget slice of trash that is littered with inane plot holes and poor acting.

It begins decently though as at a suburban house, a party goes awry when the hosts murder everyone in attendance before committing suicide themselves. All of this taking place at the 11 minutes past 11 at night. An exciting start but alas, it is all downhill from here.

One year later, Jack and Melissa Vales are moving into the house from the start. Unaware of its bloody past it seems. Jack is a professor, taking the job at a local school where his predecessor seemingly picked up and disappeared. The couple have a young son named Nathan. Who is mostly mute for reasons that are never explained and is home-schooled for reasons that are never explained.

His parents hope that the change of scenery will do him some good but find the neighbours to be a bit weird. In particular the elderly next-door neighbour who seems to be obsessed with young Nathan and his upcoming birthday. Why? Well, he will be turning 11 on the 11th of the 11th month 2011. What does this mean? Something about Satan. The boy might be the devil or the devil is going to possess him come 11:11pm on the 11th. The film doesn’t do a great job of explaining just what will happen.

Nor does it explain how the neighbourhood is involved or how they managed to set it up so the family would move in just in time for his birthday. Or what makes Nathan so special aside from the synchronisation of his birth. If you’re thinking that you’re going to have really detach your mind to find any enjoyment out of this, you’re not wrong. However, try as you might, the other issues with the film are impossible to ignore.

Let’s talk about the acting first. It gives us no pleasure to slam the acting ability of a child but Hayden Byerly as Nathan is awful in this. His character being mute for the most part saves us from having to hear his poor line delivery but it’s his reactions to events that are the real problem. The film suggest that his changing behaviour is what worries his parents over the movie’s runtime. However, his behaviour never actually changes that much and his expression is blank throughout all of it. You’re expecting to hear from his parents that he suffered some sort of traumatic event that made him his way, but it never comes.

His parents aren’t much better though, Jon Briddell as Jack and Erin Coker as Melissa. They have no chemistry but it is Jack’s ‘take everything in his stride’ character that is infuriating. He gets a phone call where a person threatens to kill his son and he doesn’t mention it to anyone, let alone the police. He hires a babysitter that behaves inappropriately, yet he keeps her around. However, perhaps the worst moment is when Nathan stabs his mother and it is treated as if he was just a tad cheeky with her.

Those glaring issues are just the tip of the iceberg though and to go through all of 11/11/11’s problems would just extend this review to crazy lengths. Every time you think you’ve seen the dumbest part of the movie; it always seems to find a way to surpass it. A rushed and lacklustre finale ends up feeling like par for the course. Most will just be glad it’s over.