Poor Bryan Singer had to bear the burden of having to follow up his critical smash The Usual Suspects with something at least as substantial - he could hardly win.

He chose a "pet" project of his that he had been drawn to for years. The story is indeed a fascinating game of the shifting balance of power between a young lad, precociously talented, perhaps a bit too much for his own good - and a craggy old man who has the darkest secrets to hide and will stop at nothing to conceal them. The balance shifts back and forth between these two protagonists and it is this interaction that forms the crux of the Stephen King short story.

Unfortunately Singer doesn't manage an effective transition to film as the movie never captures that element of power struggle between the two forces. It never works and for a man who was so brilliant as James Whale in Gods and Monsters, Ian McKellan does a terrible job as the gnarled old Nazi. He is more camp than frightening. The kid, Brad Renfro is perhaps not so overtly awful, yet is quite ineffective and doesn't portray a sense of driven obsession that his character is supposed to have.

The film which relies on the strengths of its two leads and the chemistry between them finds both areas seriously lacking. It's a fairly misguided effort this, one Bryan Singer would no doubt be happy to have gotten out of his system and now that he doesn't have to follow up anything spectacular, who knows he may do something interesting once again.