Are you the kind of person who has difficulty telling jokes or anecdotes because you start in the middle of the story or use way too many pronouns? Anytime that you tell a story, you must do everything possible to draw the audience in so that they will want to know more. Let's face it, if the beginning isn't good, the urge to make any sort of investment in the story dwindles. Some movies suffer from issues so bad that it almost feels as if the movie is daring you to watch it. Which raises the question, "What's the point of making a movie if you're opening is going to encourage people to turn it off?" This is an issue with Forget Me Not, a bad movie which comes really close to being good.

In Forget Me Not, we meet Sandy (Carly Schroeder) and her friends, Hannah (Brie Gabrielle), Layla (Chloe Bridges), Lex (Jillian Murray), Jake (Micah Alberti), T.J. (Sean Wing), and Chad (Zachary Abel), all of whom have known each other since childhood. Now graduating seniors, the group, along with Sandy's brother, Eli (Cody Linley), enjoy a life of non-stop partying. As children, they would gather in the local cemetery and play a game which was a modified version of tag where the person who was "it" was a "ghost" and once a player was tagged, they too became a "ghost" and would begin chasing the others. One night, the drunken group decides to relieve their childhood and play the game again. When they arrive at the graveyard, they meet a girl who they don't know (Brittany Renee Finamore) who asks if she can play as well. They agree, but the girl promptly disappears. The next day, Sandy and her friends plan a trip to the beach. However, as they are getting ready to leave, ghost-like creatures begin to attack the group, but only Sandy knows what is going on. As the friends are picked off one-by-one, will Sandy be able to convince them that they are in danger?

In the past, I've written about how invaluable a good idea can be, and Forget Me Not certainly has a good idea. But, more on that in a minute. For now, let's focus on the first 15 minutes of the movie, which are nearly unwatchable. I was very tempted to simply turn the movie off, and I'm still shocked that my wife stayed in the room. During this period, we are introduced to the characters, and they all come across as the most degenerate, annoying, and chemically dependent bunch that you've ever seen. It's almost as if all that the movie knows about teenagers is that they like to party, so we are treated to scene after scene of alcohol, drugs, and sex. This is accompanied by cheating, backstabbing, and gossiping. Nobody's perfect, but these characters are the most stereotypically repugnant teens that I've ever seen and even Steve Stifler would ask them if there wasn't something else that they needed to be doing. To add insult to injury, Jake and Lex's dad (Dan Gauthier) is the sheriff and he witnesses this behavior and simply gives them an "Oh, you crazy kids!" attitude. Forget Me Not seems to be daring us to continue watching and I don't think that I've ever hated a group of characters the way that I hated these. Even Sandy, who's presented as the typical "final girl", is annoying. How do you mess that up?

But then, the plot arrives and Forget Me Not begins both intriguing and frustrating. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but essentially, the childhood game of tag becomes serious, and this time, the ghost is real. From this ingenious idea, the movie begins to movie into Twilight Zone territory, as reality shifts every time one of the group is killed, but only Sandy notices this. This middle section of the film is impressive, as each death leads to a shock for Sandy, which leads to her remaining friends thinking that she is crazy. Despite the fact that some duct tape was used in their design, the ghosts have a good look and these scenes are creepy.

Forget Me Not marks the feature film debut for Writer/Director Tyler Oliver and the second movie for co-writer Jamieson Stern. Despite the fact that this movie is irreparably flawed, it shows a great deal of promise in both the visuals and the plot. If these two can learn to write better characters and maintain a strong story throughout the film, they could have promising careers. As it stands, they’ve made a film which has a very strong middle, but who really remembers the middle of a movie?

Forget Me Not is apparently set in a place where the drinking age is 17 on DVD courtesy of Phase 4 Films. The movie has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer has been enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look very natural and the image is never overly dark or bright. The image is a bit soft at times and some shots are lacking in detail. However, the image certainly has a nice HD look and never looks low-budget. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The surround sound effects stand out here, as the characters are often surrounded by ghost-like noises and these are well translated through the rear speakers. The stereo effects show good separation and help to highlight off-screen sounds. The subwoofer comes to life during the ghost sequences.

The Forget Me Not DVD contains a few special features. The DVD offers three DELETED SCENES which run about 2 minutes. All three are very incidental dialogue scenes which don't offer any new information. What is interesting is that they are letterboxed at 2.35:1 and shown 16 x 9. Hmmm... The "Alternate Ending" (3 minutes) has the same meaning as the ending in the finished film, but it includes more footage. The extras are rounded out by a PHOTO GALLERY and the TRAILER for the film.