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There's probably a horror classic to be made by playing up the ambiguity between drug-fuelled paranoia and actual supernatural activity. Unfortunately, this low-budget digital-video feature doesn't quite deliver it. Cinematographer-turned-director Dan Mintz certainly knows how to make his spooky drug-house locale look convincingly creepy. His dank yet hard-edged visuals perfectly complement the amphetamine-wired mindstate of his protagonists. Mintz is also smart enough to leaven the jittery scares with plenty of humor, most of it at the expense of Merle, the dim-witted sidekick played with monosyllabic flair by Patrick McGaw. If only would-be criminal mastermind Hector (Brad Hunt) and his forlorn girlfriend Dorena (Cyia Batten) were as sharply drawn. Instead of really wallowing in the claustrophobia and monotony of these characters' hideout, the screenplay keeps returning to overwrought flashbacks of Dorena's childhood apprenticeship as both meth-cooker and abuse victim. Throw in a hackneyed one-last-big-score plot arc and first-time writer/director Mintz has just about enough rope to hang himself. It's to his credit, then, that Cookers remains gripping for as long as it does. As the Blair Witch-isms accumulate and the melancholy flashbacks grate, the film finally exhausts its initial promise. Nonetheless, for a good hour or so it provides a novel alternative to straightforward slasher fare and creature features.