Main cast: Kathy Khanh (Ash), Julianne Collins (Liz), Aric Generette Floyd (Jake), Rory Anne Dahl (Rory), Josh Peck (Vince), Lina Esco (Becky), Dugan O’Neal (Patrick), Bailee Cowperthwaite (Rose), Jordan Rock (Wiz), Cru Ennis (Saul), Jordan David (Parker), Kyp Malone (Jamal), Kristina Lear (Kathy), Bira Vanara (Leo), and Wilson Bethel (Ricky)
Directors: Saman Kesh, Jeff Desom, and Dugan O’Neal
Doors is an anthology film that attempts to incorporate mild horror, suspense, and tension into a rather tepid sci-fi premise, and doesn’t quite succeed in doing any of that. Basically, we have three stories united by a common theme: one fine day, millions of mysterious portals appear all over the world.
As the opening story Lockdown shows, people can turn violent when the “door”, as these portals as called, speak to them using what seems like generic MS Word fonts or, when they step through the door, vanish. The door in question looks like a big black rug draped over a column, and the high school kids populating this story are a one-dimensional kind of annoying, with the take home message being that edgy kids are a menace and should be smacked some sense into. Otherwise, they drag others down with them. The idea of suspense in this segment apparently comprises these annoying kids staring at one another or into the distance, as if doing so will automatically make me shriek, “Oh this is so suspenseful, be still my heart!”
The next two subsequent stories attempt to show more about the nature of these doors, but by then, I find it hard to muster much patience for Doors, because the whole thing feels like a pretentious, vainglorious effort by folks that mistake art for throwing in as many tired cinematic clichéd gimmicks as possible. There is everything here from close-up camera shots to long-drawn scenes of people just looking at the camera. Perhaps the folks behind this thing believe that the use of these gimmicks automatically equates to intelligent cinema, but sadly, things don’t work that way. These gimmicks need to be used properly, which isn’t the case here.
For example, the close-up camera shot gimmick is used on a couple that happens to be babbling of nothing consequential. What’s the point? The entire movie seems to be made by folks that have a laundry list of things they want to do in order to tick off every item, but they don’t really know how to do every item properly.
Oh, and the dialogues are banal and childish, and what passes off for profound often ends up just being a cringe example of completely missing the mark.
Maybe there is an interesting premise here, but the amateurish execution and equally amateurish acting make it so easy for me to want to look for the exit.
