Bad Seed (2001)

The film opens as man (Luke Wilson) confronts by his wife (Mili Avital), who screams in admission that she is having an affair. Enraged, he storms out of the house. When he returns, she is dead, and her now estranged boyfriend (Norman Reedus) is suspect. So our hero takes matters into his own hands, finds the boyfriend, and kills him.

Only he got the wrong guy.

That should be the ending of the movie, right? Wrong. That's ten minutes into the film, and Bad Seed quickly plummets off a cliff right there and lands in direct-to-VHS hell. The problem? There's just no story left after the intro. What develops is instead a dumbass cat and mouse game between Reedus and Wilson, with a sentimental P.I. (Dennis Farina) along for the ride. Entire plotlines are resolved, and then new ones arise, having nothing to do with what you've just seen (presumably to pad the film beyond sitcom length). Eventually, the whole ordeal becomes so contrived you don't know who the titular Bad Seed even is. After three or so false endings, you cease to care.

Shot in Seattle's melancholy, permanent rain, Bad Seed successfully evokes feelings of the tragedy it wants to be. Too bad the rest of the movie is not so successful.

Aka Preston Tylk.