“The Girl in the Photographs” Drops on VOD and in select theaters today. The last film credit of horror master Wes Craven’s career, Photographs is an enjoyably bloody slasher pics with some good surprises.  However the picture never fully develops. 

Director Nick Simon fashions a sleek-looking yarn about Colleen (Claudia Lee) a young woman in a sleepy community called Spearfish.  She begins receiving photographs of brutally murdered young women. Are they real or staged? Who is planting these photos for her to find? Colleen’s desire to take flight is further driven by the nebbish slacker that occasionally comes in to flirt with her at her job and the leaden pace of life in the town.

Colleen begins to blog about her creepy-photograph problem and this catches the eye of obnoxious Los Angeles photographer Peter Hemmings (Kal Penn).  Lemmings insists on getting to Spearfish and finding inspiration in small-town America with all of its creepiness and nasty underbelly intact.  Luck is with Hemmings as he runs into Colleen and decides that she is his new star model.

The violent pics continue to appear, the local police, lead by Sheriff Porter (Mitch Pileggi) dismiss it as a prank.  Lemmings becomes increasingly obsessed with Colleen in a borderline creepy fashion. All the while, the new, more brutal planted pics continue to find their way to Colleen.  Will Colleen get out of town before the killer decides to photograph her?

The Girl in The Photographs is a serviceable horror pic with some wonderfully gory moments and genuine scenes of brutality. Director Simon knows how to keep a film looking slick and polished.  This is benefitted by veteran horror cinematographer Dean Cundey’s (Halloween, The Thing) expert lensing.

Unfortunately the movie has a few problems not the least of which is the clunky script by Robert Morass and Osgood Perkins.  Plot holes amass like the bodies that pile up with just as many “Why didn’t they just…” moments.  Another problem is Kal Penn’s insufferable performance as the hot shot photographer.  His grating, arrogant, mouth-breather is one of the most irritating performances of recent memory.  This is a shame because he is a damn good performer.  It might be that he is just too good in this instance.

Overall, The Girl in the Photographs is an entertaining diversion for horror fans.  There are some things that really work, there are some things that don’t.  The good news is that the action moves at a brisk pace, keeping the audience engaged through to the final reveal.

Watch it on VOD Here