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Unfortunately, it is the killer, Carl, who has the most character development. So twisted he’d give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money, I found Carl to be quite frightening. A torturer who inflicts as much pain on himself as to others, he is given a fascinating portrayal. As Catherine wanders his mind, we slowly see his abusive childhood.

Deane and Novak have a heated debate about whether a hostile upbringing is an excuse to live a twisted life. I found this one of the most fascinating exchanges between the two leads, yet going back to the shallowness of the movie, the heated conversation is all exclamation marks and no subtlety.

What The Cell lacks for in development is made up for in its exhilarating visuals. The Cell’s visual style is similar to a Dali painting, if he were commissioned to sketch stills from the Saw franchise. I love something interesting to look at in these trippy-type thrillers, and The Cell, unflinchingly and graphically, delivers. Ever wonder what it would look like for a man to have his intestines to be slowly pulled out while living? Are you curious how a horse would look severed into a bunch of little pieces? Want to see a dolled up corpse on a marionette style contraption? If so, your curiosity will be more than settled while watching The Cell (if you can manage to look, that is). I found myself in shock in how realistically done some of the visuals were and The Cell deservedly, yet surprisingly, scored an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup.

Unlike the “torture porn” visuals in Saw or Hostel or just about every other R-rated horror film nowadays, almost all of the gross contraptions have some value to the storyline. While I believe that less is always more, The Cell appears to have never heard of that saying before.

Released August 18, 2000, the same frame as current R-rated horror/thriller-remakes Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night, The Cell unexpectedly topped the box office. Budgeted at $33 million, The Cell imprisoned $17.5 million ($25.5 million adjusted), experiencing longevity, topping out at $61.3 million ($89.4 million today). Critics took a love it or hate it approach. Some loved the eye-candy, while other hated the shallowness of the plot and characters. More leaned to the jeers, as it averages 42% on Rotten Tomatoes.com. The gamut runs from Roger Ebert giving it a perfect four stars, to the Los Angeles Times giving it zero. I fall somewhere in the middle.

Lopez’s next film was The Wedding Planner and she has never come out of the romantic comedy territory since. When her second album dropped, her singing career turned from a vanity project to a legitimate second career. Jennifer Lopez turned from just being an actress into a full-fledged J.Lo empire. Vince Vaughn made a few more flop dramas, but then starred successfully in Old School less than three years later and hasn’t returned to darker fare since.

The Cell had me yearn for the two actors to return to darker material like this again. While I admitted my J.Lo crush in my Anaconda review, I will say again that I don’t think it would hurt for her to take a stab at more difficult roles. After all, Anaconda and The Cell are her second and third highest-grossing films, respectively. Lopez does a fine job here with the material she has been given and is quite convincing as a psychologist, nailing down the comforting, yet stern tone perfectly. However, in the mess of a third act when she literally turns into a Xena: Warrior Princess knock-off in a fight sequence that looks like it belongs in Sucker Punch, she is more laughable than convincing (advice to Jennifer Lopez: while I suggest that you try different roles, please don’t take any parts that involve swordplay).

Vince Vaughn dutifully plays his part, but never owns it. While he confidently plays his Agent in reality, when he enters the killer’s mind, he never seems sure on how to respond to the virtual threats.

Vincent D’Onofrio channels his part of a crazed serial killer quite well, and manages the emotional heft to make a connection with the audience (and this is no easy task, considering his sick and twisted mutilations we see all too brutally). It is quite strange to have a villain being the driving force of a movie. While it has been done before in films like Silence of the Lambs, it worked because Clarice was a well-developed equal. The same can’t be said about Catherine, even though Lopez plays her with conviction.

Making his feature film debut, commercial director Tarsem Singh certainly is a visual wonder. His problem lies in his ability to cut away and let audience’s imagine on their own. The Cell is all show and no tell. For example, on screen there is a mutilated corpse, but I never felt much emotion to it, since there was nothing left for my mind to imagine. What could have been spine chilling is just rather disgusting. Tarsem followed up The Cell eight years later with the barely released and more appropriately-titled The Fall. However, he looks to hit it big again with the 300-look-alike Immortals coming out this September. Tarsem isn’t taking his usual break between projects, because a mere four months later, the Julia Roberts-Armie Hammer Snow White re-imagining is to be released.

Visually stunning even a decade later, The Cell isn’t as mind-bending for the viewer as for the mind-invading characters. At 107 minutes, The Cell will certainly keep you locked up as the story unspools, and the twisted imagery will be trapped in your head for days later.

Verdict: With Us

6 out of 10

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