They say that you’ve got to start somewhere in your film career. For many actors, it’s the horror genre. Kevin Bacon got his break after Friday The 13th, as did Johnny Depp after A Nightmare On Elm Street. Granted, those are classics of the genre, so it was a no-brainer. Other well-known actors such as Jennifer Aniston and Leonardo DiCaprio got their breaks by being in stinkers, so it just goes to show you that horror helps, regardless of the film’s quality. Now, Sean Penn’s daughter Dylan is taking the leap into acting with director Eli Morgan Gesner’s Condemned, which is also coincidentally the former skateboarder and fashion designer’s first film.

After experiencing her parents fighting one too many times, Maya (Dylan Penn) leaves the squabbling behind to go stay with her boyfriend, Dante (Ronen Rubenstein). Dante is currently living with a couple of his bandmates in a run-down apartment building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which is also home to a variety of unsightly characters who engage in various illegal activities, including drug production. Reluctantly, Maya agrees to stay with the group. Naturally, her decision to stay is shown to be a mistake, as the building’s sewage system causes more than just a sanitary concern. An infection originating from the occupants’ collective waste starts causing the inhabitants to become insane, murderous crazies. Now Maya and Dante have bigger problems.

Thumbs up to Gesner on creating the look for this film. The apartment building definitely fits the definition of condemned, with trash, grime, graffiti littered throughout the halls and rooms. Accentuating the grimy feeling is the decision to primarily shoot in low light, not only mimicking the run-down conditions of the apartment, but also heightening the tension. I loved the shots that were seemingly lit using the reds from a neon sign, or sickly yellows and blues that light Cookie’s (Perry Yung) apartment. I also dug some of the shots Gesner used, such as the camera travelling throughout the apartment using the plumbing. Coupled with the distorted sound of water running through pipes, it’s a pretty cool idea. Coupled with some good choices in music (a mix of punk, organ and ambient), the presentation is great.

When it comes to the acting, it’s mostly average. Dylan does alright in her debut as Maya, turning in a believable performance as a lovestruck teen that makes typically bad teenager decisions. Ronen Rubenstein has one of the better performances of our protagonists as Dante, who does a good job of selling the relationship his character has with Penn. Highlights of the kooky characters in the apartment include Perry Yung as the drug cooker Cookie, acting paranoid, hallucinating and generally insane. Jordan Gelber as Big Foot is scary, regardless of whether he’s infected or not. Speaking of the infected, gorehounds will get a kick out of the effects, which are appropriately gross and fit perfectly with the surroundings. They’re indie level of quality, but kudos to Kristen Alimena, Pete Gerner and their crew for making them count.

The biggest problem Condemned faces is it’s first half. While it’s great that Gesner takes time to establish the characters and the setting, the film moves at a glacial pace, spending its time mulling over character interactions and doing all of these interesting shots. Sure, it’s great to have development, establishing the crazies that live in the apartment and showing off some neat shots, but it doesn’t lead anywhere. It takes forever for things to really start happening, and literally by the 40 minute mark of the film’s 83-minute runtime, things start to get interesting. By then, the film starts to turn up the gross-out factor with infected characters covered in pustules puking and acting crazy in an over-the-top and hardly believable way. At the same time, the film degenerates into a poor indie version of Quarantine, with Dante and Maya running around, avoiding or battling the infected. Whatever tension was created in the first half of the film is reduced, as well as the sense of terror.

While there are some cool visuals and appropriately gross effects, Condemned suffers greatly in its pacing. The film takes an eternity to get traction, and once it does, the film slowly rolls along, and never really builds itself up to a consistent speed until the end. It’s not quite the debut that Gesner or Penn wanted, I’m sure. Those looking for another take on the [REC] or Quarantine idea will glean a bit of enjoyment from this film, if they can stand waiting until things finally get going. The rest will probably pass.