vincenzo natali did great with the cube, so what will he do with a thematically similar premise after years of experience, and with a bigger budget? despite the haunting conceit, this is not a ghost horror movie. at its core, it's much like the cube: it is about being trapped in a puzzle, with the protagonist moving between layers (each day, the levels of the house - see especially that ascension from basement to garage -, the various timelines) to get to the reason why she is there and what she can do to escape. this aspect was generally well done and engaging. where the movie falters is in its attempt to emphasize the horror aspect of it instead of playing more like a slow burn, suffocating drama; it both strikes some strident notes and squanders the premise. for one thing, being trapped in the same day while stuck in a house with your oblivious family is obviously a far worse situation that, say, groundhog day where you can do whatever you want in a city - more of a playground than a prison. secondly, lisa expresses a lot of fear, which is odd at the beginning considering the fact that (a) the identical day is her hell, and (b) everything resets anyway. for all that abigail breslin played lisa, there was no subtlety or complexity whatsoever to the role/acting. finally, the banishing came out of the blue, and there was no attempt to have it make any sense whatsoever. the plot had to have it happen, and it was cliched enough to avoid extreme wtf reactions. it was sheer laziness.