I can remember a time, when the ratings on IMDB were an indicator for the quality of a movie. Those days seem to be gone.

Nowadays, I have to read through all reviews and check the distribution of ratings to get an idea, because the rating alone seems to be fake most of the time. Sadly I was blinded by this one, maybe because I really like John Cusack.

Unfortunately, Mr. Cusack seems to have devoted himself to the absolute worst possible roles in the absolute worst possible movies lately. I can't remember the last time I liked a movie with him in it.

This one is a new low, I don't know where to begin. The non-story, the amateurish production, the laughable CGI, the missing direction, the incredibly bad acting all around, the wig?? Really, pick any one of those and it will be enough to skip this pile of garbage.

Dear Mr. Cusack, remember Martian Child, Grace is Gone, High Fidelity or even Identity? What happened?

DISTORTED is a lamentably bad thriller that goes for the psychological approach but turns out to be a complete waste of time for viewers. A tired-looking Christina Ricci plays a wife who moves into a high tech building only to become convinced that she's being stalked and spied on by strangers. It's embarrassingly low budget throughout, and the worst thing is that the supposed scare sequences rely on flashing images seemingly designed to induce an epileptic fit in the viewer. I had my suspicions when I saw Brendan Fletcher's name in the cast - he's forever soured by his association with Uwe Boll - and as for John Cusack, he appears in little more than an extended cameo. Bad stuff indeed, even by B-flick standards.

Lauren Curran (Christina Ricci) is having nightmares and disturbing visions after a devastating loss. She and her husband Russell (Brendan Fletcher) move into a high-tech building. She suspects that the building is using subliminal messages to brainwash her. She seeks help from a conspiracy chatroom and finds a mysterious stranger (John Cusack).

There are these teddy bears with nanny cams hidden inside. Lauren should get a boat load of those. This movie lacks tension, thrills, or anything particularly new. It's one idea that isn't original. Even the halo-wearing brainwashing isn't that good. It should do the full Clockwork Orange and pull the eyes open. It's not original in the first place and it doesn't even get to the level of its better ancestors. It's kinda of a forgettable exercise that should be dumped into VOD or other streaming services.