I usually don't like horror, but my bf does and he buys lots of DVDs, so I have been watching horror lately. This movie was particularly soft on my frightfulness, since I instinctively knew where it was going the whole time, and have been dealing with the psychology of rumors of these types of places ever since I moved to gay ghettos around 1993 and had to understand the thought processes of those who I was interested in as well as many people I knew in the escort business. As an underlying fear I've had for over a decade and a nemesis I wish to abolish in the statistical probability of finding someone I love or lust, this movie was an exhilarating relief.
I had this feeling of anonymous unconfirmed and unseen but still shared enjoyment from the movie of those of us who had similar angsts and awarenesses. Most young people who are culturally promiscuous these days probably think of this movie as mere child's play, what with the Haiti crime/theft/murder/gang tourism that so many of today's younger people from the two lower North American countries have done, and whatever else must be similar to that, including the recent prominence of Spanish Conquerer attitudes via the Mexicans and that of the mule attitudes of the Ex-Slave blacks abound, as well as recent dumbness promotion in our political, educational, and employment systems, and the whole baby-boomer low classness/ethics/morals problem. My not liking those things, nor horror, in general, doesn't indemnify me from the realities that surround me and the thought processes and emotions that accompany them, so as a result, I got to actually enjoy something in the horror category for a change.
My boyfriend (more freaky) didn't like it, probably for many of the reasons that made it more targeted to me (more vanilla): it's not that scary (he loves fear, which makes sense since his first two bfs were baby boomers who are usually freaky as hell), and it is about a topic that I am vaguely familiar much from rare and faint rumor.
I sincerely appreciated the ending scene which gave a hope of cure, and even the faint emotional suggestion that such cure has some basis in history written or not. It could easily be interpreted that the cure does not exist even in that case, though, which is horrifying beyond compare.
P.S., It's ironic that one of my favorite recent films had no review from some of my favorite reviewers, Siskel, Ebert, and Roepert, but I know them as a strong reference point that I've long understood since I grew up with them, not people I agree with! The only comment from Ebert was that the film is a money-making horror film that he despises in general, and from some other commenters on other sites that it was just a horrible film in so many ways. Apparently, the filmers succeeded in that pitiful measure, but apparently those reviewers aren't where this film should get its real reviews from.