(Edited highlights of the panel's review)

MARK LAWSON:
My Little Eye directed by Marc Evans. This is a Blair Witch impersonation, isn't it?

MARK KERMODE:
It is partly. I think it's a nasty, cynical, vindictive little movie. I mean that as the highest possible praise at a time when the horror genre has descended into anodyne teen-slasher movies about likeable teenagers triumphing against force. It's really good to see somebody using horror to bludgeon people with.

There are two things that I like about it. One, it has a philosophy: reality television is the new pornography and it degrades all of us. Two, it's directed by Marc Evans who has an awareness of other films in this genre from Peeping Tom to Videodrome and Blair Witch Project and he takes the voyeuristic horror film and does something new with it. The whole film is seen from the point of view of wall-mounted video cameras and he doesn't break from that. He's put together a sound track that is extraordinary. The noises and the creaks really get under your skin. It is the most advanced of horror film sounds.

The bravest thing about it is that the misanthropy of the movie has given us five totally unlikable characters and you're never asked to sympathise with any of them, but you're asked to watch their lives fall apart in this pornographic way. I think it's a great British horror film and I think he's a great talent.

MARK LAWSON:
You say misanthropy, but what about misogyny? It's a crude slasher film, isn't it?

MARK KERMODE:
I don't think the film is misogynistic at all. I think the main characters in the film are misogynists. The movie looks at all the characters with total disdain, puts them together like rats in a laboratory and watches them mess each other up, which is what reality television is all about.

BONNIE GREER:
I said in the middle of the movie "Now I know why people hate the United States." I sat there watching my watch. It was the kind of screenplay you write after coming out of a five-day screen screenwriting course. It did take on reality TV, but in the way you write a slogan and no further. Isn't the point of a scary movie that you're supposed to be scared? I was ahead of this movie every ten minutes and it wasn't witty or funny. The most exciting thing for me is it's shot on DV and this kind of movie is going to change Hollywood in terms of how the movie business is structured. Scream wipes this off.

ALKARIM JIVANI:
I agree with Bonnie that I didn't feel the smallest squeak of fear, but that doesn't mean I didn't jump out of my skin, because I did. The sound is amplified to a level so high it makes you jump and this is the level of sophistication, like standing behind a door and saying "boo". I had real problems with the way the script was structured. At the beginning of the film they go up to the attic because of the trapped bird there. It's dark and the lights are infrared and the camera reflects off the back of the eye and it's effective. Then they go back to the attic later in the movie and just flick a light switch on and you think, "Hey, what happened there?."

This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors.