Crew
Director – Marc Klasfeld, Screenplay – Dikega Hadnot, Spencer Mandel & Stephen Susco, Based on the Novel Creepers (2005) by David Morrell, Producer – Jordan Schur, Photography – Yon Thomas, Music – Blitz//Berlin, Visual Effects – Antonio Cerri, Beverly Films/HD Shot Studio (Supervisors – Henry Lipatov & Hryschenko Yehven) & Cameo FX (Supervisors – Andrii Bieliznoi, Andrii Bilym & Serhi Churikov), Special Effects Supervisor – Yovko Dogandjiiski, Makeup Effects Supervisor – Lyudmil Nikolov, Production Design – Nikolai Kirilov. Production Company – Suretone Pictures.
Cast
Jake Manley (Rick), Adeline Rudolph (Diane), Francesca Reale (Cora), Shane Paul McGhie (Vernon), Laurence O’Fuarain (Frank Balenger), Kai Caster (JD), Nicholas Hamilton (Tod), Brennan Keel Cook (Mack), Javier Botet (Morgan Carlisle/Pale Creature)
Plot
In New York City, a group of urban explorers known as The Creepers are seeking to get views for their channel. They announce a venture into the abandoned Paragon Hotel whose owner Morgan Carlisle disappeared under mysterious circumstance back in the 1980s. Other people venturing into the Paragon have gone missing. The building is also rumoured to hold the lost fortune of mobster Meyer Lansky. Not long after they arrive, they are followed by The Scavengers, a rival group of urban explorers who have been joined by JD, who was banished from The Creepers for breaking the rules. Tod, the leader of The Scavengers, is ruthless and murderous in his determination to find the missing fortune. However, they have reckoned without something that lurks inside the abandoned hotel.
Do Not Enter was a feature length film for Marc Klasfeld who has directed over 150 music videos since 1998 for artists such as Aerosmith, Avenged Sevenfold, Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, Charlie XCX, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Limp Bizkit, The Offspring, Ozzy Osbourne, Katy Perry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Spliknot and Robbie Williams, among a good many others. Klasfeld has previously directed one full-length film with the comedy The L.A. Riot Spectacular (2005).
The most interesting name on the credits is that of David Morell, the thriller/action writer who is best known for the novel First Blood (1972), filmed as First Blood (1982) with Sylvester Stallone, which of course became the basis of the Rambo film series. The film is adapted from Morell’s horror novel Creepers (2005) to which he also wrote also wrote a sequel Scavenger (2007). The film follows general faith to the novel but updates it to the era of TikTok videos, while the nature of who is haunting the hotel is entirely changed from the more mundane menace it is in the book to something with a more fantastic explanation.
The opening of the film totally switches you off. It is a manic blur of happening videos as the team of urban explorers broadcast their channel. This mad mimicry of the TikTok video (or appeal to that crowd) instantly kills your interest. Your worst fear is that Do Not Enter is going to be a Found Footage work that comes entirely in that same vein. Happily, this does not turn out to be the case and the barrage of video inanity ends a few minutes in.
The rest of the film settles down and starts to conduct some classic atmosphere building. At which Marc Klasfeld shows that he has a decent budget to hand, even if none of the moves he ever delivers any real atmosphere or jumps, or anything that any other work about an abandoned building has not conducted before. The teen cast are largely anonymous – although the lead bad guy Nicholas Hamilton could almost be a younger twin brother for Stephen Dorff.
The one good thing about Do Not Enter is the production design that has gone into the abandoned hotel. Rather than the usual familiar corridors and hallways, what we have is a vast expansive space of ballrooms and massive foyers with chandeliers, sweeping staircases and the like. It looks a lot different to the usual film in this vein, even if Marc Klasfeld fails to do much that is imaginative with the design. The film comes to an explanation of what the creature in the hotel who has been killing interlopers is but you feel like it needed a good deal more backstory that the vague hints given in a montage of newspaper headlines and shots from an old book.
Trailer here