Tag: 2003

Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)

Directed by Victor Salva [Other horror films: Clownhouse (1989), The Nature of the Beast (1995), Jeepers Creepers (2001), Rosewood Lane (2011), Haunted (2014), Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)]

There are people out there who say that the this movie is better than the first Jeepers Creepers, and though I don’t exactly agree, I can understand where they’re coming from. This one is a lot more action-packed, and there’s a lot more focus on the Creeper and his ways in this one. Of course, whether that makes it a better movie is up to you.

Personally, at an hour and 45 minutes, I do think that Jeepers Creepers 2 runs a bit long. It’s not only that, though – we don’t really have a main character here. Sure, Ray Wise pops up now and again, and while we’re focused on the bus, a lot of attention is given to Eric Nenninger’s character, but I’d be hard-pressed to call either of them true focal points. One could even make the case that the Creeper should get the title; he does pop up quite a bit, but I also don’t buy it.

There’s also the fact that as a bus of basketball players (and some cheerleaders) is stuck on a desolate stretch of road, prey-in-waiting for Mr. Creeper, we’re given quite a few characters, and learn very little about most of them. One of them might be racist, and another might be gay, and one of the women has random dreams of Darry (from the first film) warning about the Creeper’s insatiable hunger, but they’re largely just a mass of people we know little about.

If anything, I wish that the two coaches (Thom Gossom Jr. and Tom Tarantini), or perhaps the bus driver (Diane Delano) stuck around a bit longer, but I also understand the appeal of dispatching with any possible authority figures early on. It’s a shame, though, because it doesn’t really give us anyone to care about, unless Garikayi Mutambirwa really wets your whistle.

What I can say for certain, though, in the film’s favor, is that the opening is stellar. It’s well-shot, and really gets us in a Creeper mood early on. The first film took a bit to drive up the suspense, but this one hops right into it, and I think they did a great job. Secondly, the final scene is damn good too. The line, “give or take a few,” is some A+ stuff, and from the first time I saw this years ago, that ending stuck out to me.

Naturally, because it focuses more on the Creeper and his nature, we get a lot of scenes with the Creeper getting hurt, and healing his body. He takes someone’s head and uses it to replace his own, which was playful. His wings get some focus, and if you want more of the actual creature, then this will probably do something good for you. It helps that the effects here are nothing to complain about at all.

There’s not a ton of performances that I can say stood out. Ray Wise (Dead End, Digging Up the Marrow, Dead Still) of course did well, as you’d expect. I liked Thom Gossom Jr., Diane Delano (The Wicker Man), and Tom Tarantini (who also had a brief scene in the first movie, though as a different character), but none of them got a lot of time to play with. Eric Nenninger wasn’t the most likable, nor was he the most memorable. Nicki Aycox (Dead Birds) at least had potential, but I don’t think they did all they could with her. Garikayi Mutambirwa has some moments, as does Marieh Delfino (Freaks), but again, neither have much more than that.

I know it might sound at times that I don’t utterly love the film, but I still find it reasonably fun. It’s just that I don’t personally feel this is a stronger film than the first one. I think it’s a good movie, and I enjoyed revisiting it, but I know that if I was given a choice of only one I could watch again in the future, I’d have to stick with the OG.

7.5/10

Chakushin ari (2003)

Directed by Takashi Miike [Other horror films: Ôdishon (1999), Tennen shôjo Man next: Yokohama hyaku-ya hen (1999), Tajuu jinkaku tantei saiko – Amamiya Kazuhiko no kikan (2000), Bijitâ Q (2001), Koroshiya 1 (2001), Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (2001), Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu (2003), Sam gang 2 (2004, segment ‘Box’), Aku no kyôten (2012), Kuime (2014), Kamisama no iu tôri (2014), Gokudô daisensô (2015), Terra Formars (2016)]

Honestly, I have to say I’m a bit surprised by this one, and in this particular case, it’s not a positive surprise. This Japanese movie, despite the plenty of decent things I’ve heard about it over the years, just strikes me as a rather average film. It’s okay, it’s certainly watchable, but is it special? I don’t see it.

Chakushin ari, perhaps better known as One Missed Call, feels like Japanese ghost movie 101. It’s based on a novel by Yasushi Akimoto, and has plenty of what you’d expect from a Japanese ghost movie, such as a long-haired child spirit, some mystery behind the spirit and why the spirit is wreaking havoc, and the same jump scares you’ve likely seen before.

None of this makes this movie bad, but it does feel a little generic. It is true, also, that I’m not a big J-horror fan – honestly, I could probably count the modern Japanese horror films I’ve seen on two hands, and that’s after a finger or two gets lost in the garbage disposal. To be fair, I do rather love Dark Water, but this is directed by Takashi Miike of all people, so I sort of expected a little more.

I was mostly able to follow this story along though – sometimes Asian horror films confuse the hell out of me (such as A Tale of Two Sisters or Ju-on), but this one seemed pretty simple. I didn’t really care for the ending, but still, at least the story was okay. It even added spices of dark subject matter such as parental abuse into the mix, which of course is always good fun.

Only two performances really mattered here, and that’d be Kô Shibasaki (Battle Royale, Kakashi / Scarecrow, and Kuime / Over Your Dead Body) and Shin’ichi Tsutsumi. The amusing thing is, I wasn’t sure of the name of Tsutsumi’s character until the final twenty minutes or so. Shibasaki does solid with the role she has, and Tsutsumi is a comforting character at times, but neither one is particularly note-worthy.

What is sort of odd is that I got the sense I knew where this film was going – we open with a group of six friends eating together at a restaurant, and I was expecting a Final Destination-type thing in which each of these six friends would have to deal with the cell phone curse, but after it passes through three of them, the other two just disappear, and we’re left with Ko Shibasaki’s character, which felt sort of odd.

Actually, on the whole idea of the curse, in which someone gets a call from themselves in the future, sort of foretelling of when they’ll die, this movie does have an aged technological feel to it, as everyone is carrying around flip phones. What’s amusing about this, in my perspective, is that I’m an old-fashioned guy, and in fact, I still use a flip phone to this day, so that added an extra element to the movie, and at least personalized it.

Even so, One Missed Call just felt on the generic side to me. There wasn’t much of an emotional impact toward the end – I mean, they tried, but it just didn’t hit me in the same way the end of either Black Rat or Dark Water hits me – and while I can appreciate the song during the credits, I still think the movie comes out to about average. Not bad, just average.

Like I said, though, I’m not the biggest fan of J-horror, so it’s quite possible that it will do more for those who are than it ever would have for me.

7/10

Fear of the Dark (2003)

Directed by K.C. Bascombe [Other horror films: N/A]

A nostalgic favorite of mine, I first saw Fear of the Dark when I was a kid. I remember being home from school, likely sick, and catching this on television. It’s a movie aimed at a younger audience, but as I was a younger audience (if I was older than 12, I’d be surprised), it worked out well, and even since then, I’ve been a fan of this movie.

It’s a pretty simple story with a limited cast – a young boy deals with the dark thing (shadows that come to life, as they oft do) while he and his older brother are home alone. And that’s pretty much it – there are only five relevant characters, and if you discount the parents, just three. It’s a small cast, made with what I’d imagine to be a lower budget, but it works out beautifully.

Part of this is because, as a kid, I grew up on Goosebumps. I watched Goosebump after school all the time, and I’ve seen most of the episodes (along with owning all the ones released on VHS). Fear of the Dark feels like an hour-and-a-half long episode of Goosebumps, albeit mildly more mature (in regards to language). It feels like what got me into horror, in other words, and seeing it at a young age, during my early exploration into the genre, really cements this in my mind.

To be fair, one could say it’s a bit slow. The final 15 minutes have a ton of action, but there’s only a handful leading up to the finale. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me, as it just increases the tension, which is made even better by the ongoing lightning storm throughout the film.

Jesse James (The Amityville Horror, Dead Souls) does great as a young kid dealing with an intense, and justifiable, fear of the dark, and his interactions with Kevin Zegers (Shadow Builder, Vampire, The Hollow, Komodo, Wrong Turn), who plays his older brother, strike me as very genuine. In fact, playing their parents are Linda Purl (Visiting Hours) and Charles Edwin Powell (Screamers), and they also strike me as genuine, so the family in the movie feels like a real family.

The only other cast member worth mentioning is Rachel Skarsten (Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer), and while it’s true most of her scenes aren’t until the final 25 minutes or so, she did pretty well, especially with some more emotional material (such as the loss of her brother, along with her fear of dogs).

The night things, or shadow people, do look a little silly. The main one wears what seems to be a cowboy hat, and there’s another one who wears a top hat. Honestly, they don’t look too bad, but it’s more that they pop up in a dark hallway to some raucous rock music, and while it’s not ineffective, it does look a little goofy.

Many of the other scares are decent, though, such as a figure in someone’s closet, or one of the brothers being stuck in the attic with overactive shadows, or faces and hands pushing the wall out, as Freddy famously did in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Actually, aside from some really hideous CGI cockroaches/beetles toward the finale, most of the action-orientated horrors are decent.

Honestly, though, Fear of the Dark is more than just the night things and the scary events the two brothers face during a stormy night – it’s about a strained relationship between an older brother who thinks his younger brother is too old to be scared of the dark, and a younger brother who doesn’t believe he can confide in his older brother, even when he’s being physically harmed by the dark. It’s a good movie showcasing the two of them growing closer, and I think that’s another big draw I feel toward it.

It can’t go without saying that another important aspect is that it’s from this movie that I first heard the song ‘Ski Bum’ by Les Megatones, which is pretty catchy and never fails to amuse me. It pops up during the opening credits, along with playing during the end credits. It doesn’t really seem like the type of song to be in a movie like this – it’s the opposite of anything I consider ‘dark’ – but it’s a fun song, and has graced my iTunes for years.

Naturally, a lot of the stuff in this movie isn’t likely to impress those who don’t already enjoy the 90’s, kid-style horror of Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, but as I grew up on both of those shows, this movie hits the right spots, and though it’s flawed in some aspects, I’ve never seen this movie and not had a good time with it. Honestly, I doubt I ever could.

Fear of the Dark isn’t going to be a movie that every horror fan loves, but it’s one of the movies that got me into the genre, and I personally love it.

8.5/10

Undead (2003)

Directed by Michael Spierig [Other horror films: Daybreakers (2009), Jigsaw (2017), Winchester (2018)] & Peter Spierig [Other horror films: Daybreakers (2009), Jigsaw (2017), Winchester (2018)]

I want to be as fair as possible, so I need to first say that as I write this, I am both sick and tired – I don’t mean figuratively, I mean I am literally sick and extraordinarily tired. I don’t really feel that bad – my throat is a bit rough, but otherwise, I’m okay. Still, I’m exhausted, and just wasn’t in the mood for this movie at all.

Undead is a lower-budget zombie science-fiction comedy movie. It has interesting ideas, I guess, but I hated the comedy, so I really can’t find it in me to care that much. Certainly zombie comedies can be done right – even ignoring larger budget films, check out New Zealand’s Last of the Living, which was pretty okay. The comedy here, though, wasn’t at all something I cared for in the least.

Also, while I can’t describe this fairly, the music was horrible. I can’t explain why. It sounded cheap and silly. That’s the best I can do. It was just shitty throughout, and that alone cost the movie something like two points. Godawful.

Look, the idea was interesting – instead of a generic zombie movie, Undead tried to do something new by throwing in acid rain, aliens, and giant walls made of metal. Even come the end, I didn’t really get what they were going for, and the story still confuses me, but I can appreciate that they tried to do something new with a sub-genre that’s overwrought with repetition.

I respect it, but I just can’t like it.

Only one performance did anything for me, being Mungo McKay’s. I didn’t get his character, but I didn’t get any of the characters, many of whom were over-the-top in their silliness, which of course makes me rather dispositioned to despise them.

Also loved all the ammunition wasting. It wasn’t until 40 minutes into the movie that they discovered they should aim for the heads. It made me think that zombies weren’t something people in this universe had a concept of. As it turns out, they did – later on, one of the characters admits that the people walking around are zombies. If they had a concept of zombies beforehand, why didn’t they just immediately try and focus on headshots?

Some people might call that a small nitpick, but that type of thing really annoys me, and it just gave me cause to dislike this movie more.

Even so, Undead, at the time of this writing (March 11th, 2022), has a 5.4/10 on IMDb (with 14,188 votes). Enough people found it decent enough to rate it above a 5/10, which personally amazes me. I get it – throwing in aliens and acid rain was a neat idea, and if it landed for some people, then glory be to God.

I’m just tired and bitter. I didn’t care for the comedy of this movie at all, nor most of the characters, and as interesting as some of the concepts here are, I don’t think they were explained all that well. I didn’t have a good time at all with this, but if it sounds like your type of thing, it may be worth a watch.

3.5/10

Rats (2003)

Directed by Tibor Takács [Other horror films: The Gate (1987), I, Madman (1989), The Gate II: Trespassers (1990), Mansquito (2005), Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006), Ice Spiders (2007), Mega Snake (2007), Spiders 3D (2013), Bunks (2013)]

While Rats isn’t a good movie, it is a movie that could have been decent. If the plot had been tightened up a bit, and the special effects improved on, it might have been something that was sort of special.

As it is, I have some minor history with this film. Like movies such as Webs, How to Make a Monster, and Piñata: Survival Island, I saw Rats when I was rather young in life, so it does have a bit of a special place in my heart. That doesn’t save the movie – the poor special effects can’t be defended – but I can admit to enjoying this a smidge more because of my past with it.

Also, the story isn’t that bad. A female journalist goes undercover at a private psychiatric hospital to work on a story, and a guy who telepathically communicates with rats tries to hold back a massive rat attack. Okay, well, the first part of the movie (undercover at a mental institution) was a solid idea, in a Nellie Bly-type way. Admittedly, it goes off the rails once the giant rat comes in, but to all good things there must come an end.

The special effects are pretty horrendous. The 3D rats looked, as the kids say, quite shit, and they never really look good at any point. Even during a personal favorite scene in the film (and one that stuck with me the most from my childhood viewing of this movie), in which rats attack people locked up in isolation rooms, straight-jackets and all, show the rats entering the room with some of the worst special effects imaginable.

Sara Downing made a pretty decent lead. She occasionally reminded me of A.J. Cook, and that’s never a bad thing. Ron Perlman (Desperation, The Last Winter, and I Sell the Dead), an actor I can’t stand usually, is pretty tame and tolerable here. Denise Dowse’s character half the time was atrocious, but I liked her performance. On the more generic side, we have Bailey Chase, Michael Zelniker, and Michael Hagerty. The only performance I actively didn’t like was Zelniker’s, but that’s more due to his character than anything else.

Not to be confused with Rats (2000), The Rats (2002), or Rats: Night of Terror (1984), Rats isn’t terrible if you just want someone comfortable to snuggle up with, but if you’re looking for someone to hang onto for the rest of your life, I doubt Rats could do that for you.

5.5/10

Deadly Stingers (2003)

Directed by J.R. Bookwalter [Other horror films: The Dead Next Door (1989), Robot Ninja (1989), Zombie Cop (1991), Kingdom of the Vampire (1991), Shock Cinema Vol. 3 (1991), Shock Cinema Vol. 4 (1991), Ozone (1993), The Sandman (1995), Polymorph (1996), Witchouse II: Blood Coven (2000), Witchouse 3: Demon Fire (2001)]

Originally titled Deadly Stingers, Mega Scorpions (which isn’t near as interesting a title, in my opinion) is classy early 2000’s creature feature fun. It’s far from a good movie, but if you enjoy films such as Spiders, Python, Glass Trap, and King Cobra, you may well enjoy this.

Of course, the special effects are pretty horrible, especially the giant 3D ants, which truly look awful. And yet, I can’t help but postulate that they still look better than post-2010 Syfy efforts (Lavalantula, 2-Headed Shark Attack, those types of things). I mean, it’s no doubt shitty, but this was from 2003, so it’s almost charming, whereas later films don’t have near as much an excuse.

It’s also worth mentioning that Deadly Stingers had some unique story arcs. Some characters that I would have bet would have lasted longer died somewhat early on, and though this movie is really no better than any number of generic giant insects go wild films from the time period, I did appreciate how it almost had an air of unpredictability, or at least more unpredictability than you’d expect from a movie of this caliber.

The cast here was pretty fun all around. True, some of the performances didn’t shine (such as Sewell Whitney, Marcella Laasch, John Henry Richardson, and Stephen O’Mahoney), but then you have decent performances from Nicolas Read, Sarah Megan White (who had horrible delivery, but her character grew on me), and a personal favorite Trent Haaga (of Slices and Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula). There was even a one-hit wonder in the form of a short scene with Ariauna Albright, who I know as one of the leads in Bloodletting.

Now as you can imagine, portions of the story are flimsy, and with the special effects being a general failure, this is one of those movies that a large swath of people, even horror fans, would likely not seek out. I will give mild credit to a sequence in which an autopsy is done on a giant scorpion in order to remove it’s venom sacks – that scene was #gnarly.

I did have more fun with this movie than I suspect many would. That doesn’t mean I think the movie’s good, of course, but if I’m being fair, I do think, especially for the type of movie it is, that it’s watchable, and I think that it’s one I’d be okay watching again.

6.5/10

Beyond the Limits (2003)

Directed by Olaf Ittenbach [Other horror films: Black Past (1989), The Burning Moon (1992), Premutos – Der gefallene Engel (1997), Legion of the Dead (2001), Riverplay (2001), Evil Rising (2002), Garden of Love (2003), Familienradgeber (2006), Chain Reaction (2006), Dard Divorce (2007), No Reason (2010), Legend of Hell (2012), Savage Love (2012), 5 Seasons (2015), Olaf Ittenbach’s Colourman (2017), Garden of Love II (2017)]

I knew very little about this going in, which was, in this case, a positive thing, because if I had known it was an anthology movie with only two stories, each one taking approximately 50 minutes, I would have gone the other way. As it was, Beyond the Limits wasn’t terrible, and it has it’s place, but it’s certainly not a movie I’d expect too many people to enjoy or want to sit through.

Before anything else, though, I want to give credit to the gore. Director Olaf Ittenbach is somewhat well-known for his gorier films (though I’ve not personally seen any aside from this one), and this one is no different, with some quality decapitations, someone being garroted, a young kid taking a sledgehammer to the face, and other goodies. It’s a solid example of lower-budget gore being done right, so if you’re into this type of thing, this movie might be looking up.

Otherwise, I just don’t think it’s really a great movie. I’ve not seen that many anthology films which feature just two stories, but those that I have (such as Two Evil Eyes and 2009’s Late Fee) haven’t been that good. Part of the reason being, the stories are obviously too short to be full-length movies, but are also too long to be digestible, easy-to-view segments you’d expect from any decent anthology, be it Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow.

It also doesn’t help that neither story here, not to mention the framing sequence (which started out fine, but by the end just seemed terrible) made a positive impression on me. I’d say the first story – a bunch of people are tortured by a sadistic guy in relation to a gangland incident – was the better of the two, as it’s pretty much, past a certain point, a low-budget Hostel. The second story, a period piece about the torture of the Inquisition on religious folk, felt more like a bloodier The Bloody Judge than anything really worth getting into.

I didn’t hate any of the acting (though I will say that Simon Newby was a bit campier than I’d have personally preferred), but few people here really wowed me. From the first story, even with his flaws, Simon Newby was probably the best there. Thomas Reitmair (who I couldn’t help but see as a blonde Alan Rickman) needed a bit more character, and Daryl Jackson was too much a mystery to really get a hang on.

From the second story, while Darren Shahlavi could have been an okay protagonist, he really didn’t end up that memorable. Russell Friedenberg was delightfully evil, albeit maybe a bit over-the-top, but the real over-the-top performance award goes to David Creedon, who was just ridiculously campy (perhaps even rivaling Newby). There are some quality medieval set pieces and sword fights, but you can see it done decently better in the early episodes of Game of Thrones.

Honestly, Beyond the Limits is far from a terrible film. It’s competent in what it was aiming for, and save for a few really bad effects (such as a woman being thrown out of a building in the first story) and that rather awful and expected conclusion, it might be worth watching if you’re already familiar with Olaf Ittenbach or into low-budget horror. It’s just really not my type of thing.

5/10

Wrong Turn (2003)

Directed by Rob Schmidt [Other horror films: The Alphabet Killer (2008)]

In some ways, I do view this one as a modern-day classic. It’s not amazing, by any means, but it’s consistently entertaining and solidly gruesome (though honestly, there’s not really a ton of onscreen onslaught), and had we not been over-inundated with sequels, I think this one would stand out more positively to a larger population of horror fans.

The story here is simple, and takes from such classics as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes (and in fact, I wonder if this movie had anything to do with The Hills Have Eyes being remade just three years later), the only difference being that this movie feels more real than either of those two. Taking place in the dense forests of West Virginia (though filmed entirely in Canada), the setting was solid, and the plot, though simple, quite effective.

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that the characters here are mostly decent people. I think that Desmond Harrington’s (Love Object) performance is a little one-dimensional, but Eliza Dushku was great as a kick-ass female protagonist, and I really liked Jeremy Sisto (Population 436) here too. Emmanuelle Chriqui was the least-engaging of the four main characters, but Lindy Booth was attractive, so there you go.

The action here is also pretty top-notch, with a few chase scenes in tree-tops, and some bow and arrow action. Perhaps my favorite scene is when the three inbred killers are chopping up someone while the four characters are hiding in their shack. We never see much, but it has a gritty, brutal aura to it all the same. Even the conclusion was decently-believable action, and overall, I didn’t have a lot of complaints when it came to the action, or the various tense scenes here (the watchtower too being a scene worth mentioning).

Like I said, I don’t think the movie is necessarily special, and it’s somewhat bare-bones in it’s presentation (though I do think that works to it’s favor), but I’ve always enjoyed this one, and seeing it again after many years only confirms that. I’ve not seen all the sequels (the second, third, and fourth are all I’ve gotten around to, and none come close to this one), but I doubt any of them would be as solid as this one is.

8/10

This is one of the films covered by Fight Evil’s podcast. Listen below as Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss Wrong Turn.

Dead End (2003)

Directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea [Other horror films: N/A] & Fabrice Canepa [Other horror films: N/A]

I’m sure this comparison has been made before, but Dead End really feels like an elongated episode of the Twilight Zone. There’s a deep feeling of unease here, and while the final product is far from perfect, I think seeing this again has solidly thrown it into one of the better movies of the early 2000’s.

Personally, I don’t know if I care much for the black humor aspects (it was never really overblown, but it was definitely noticeable, especially in Lin Shaye’s character), but the story overall was interesting, though admittedly going down an expected route. I always loved the overhead shots of the car driving down the road, which was entirely void of lights and surrounded on all sides by a thick, impenetrable forest.

Performances are a mixed bag. You have your annoying adolescence in Mick Cain, and though he’s sometimes amusing, boy, does he get on my nerves. Lin Shaye (A Nightmare on Elm Street and Insidious being what I recognize her most from) was decent in a starring role, though past a certain point, she felt more dark comedic relief than anything (though to be sure, she did provide us with a few pretty tense moments). I’d say between Ray Wise (Jeepers Creepers 2) and Alexandra Holden (I’ve seen her in both Wishcraft and A Dead Calling), Holden had the better performance, but Wise did a good job too. Much like Shaye, though, he sort of went off the deep end by the finale, while Holden’s character was generally more stable.

Not that they didn’t have a good reason to lose it, which is where the Twilight Zone feel comes from. Seemingly in an inescapable situation, no matter how long you drive (and the only upcoming town sign being a name that’s not even on the map), Dead End really did have good tension. At around 80 minutes, I personally feel it went on a bit longer than it had to, and the ending itself was more a mixed bag (some elements were welcomed, others not so much), but still, the plot made for a good movie.

I enjoyed Dead End when I first saw it some years back, and it mostly holds up. I wish a slightly different direction was taken, but hey, the road obviously had no turnoffs, so what can they do?

7.5/10

Identity (2003)

Directed by James Mangold [Other horror films: N/A]

This mystery/horror film has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it. The story’s great, with many decent performances, and the twists and turns here are just fantastic. Identity’s a pretty popular film, but if you’ve not seen, I’d do yourself a favor and give it a view.

Performance-wise, there’s little to nothing to really complain about. John Cusack is great, as are Amanda Peet, Clea DuVall (who was in some films, horror and non-horror, I enjoy, such as 2001’s How to Make a Monster and 2007’s Ten Inch Hero), Pruitt Taylor Vince (The Devil’s Candy), John C. McGinley (who played an entirely different type of character in The Belko Experiment), Holmes Osborne, Alfred Molina, and Ray Liotta (Hannibal). Liotta’s character has a twist up his sleeves, and while I sometimes think Liotta overacts, but he’s still solid.

It’s the twists and turns Identity takes that really makes it memorable. I remembered a couple of them, but even though I’ve seen it before, there were still a few surprises for me. It helps that the characters here, while not all likable, are all somewhat interesting, and we’re drawn into the mystery just as much as they are.

As far as the deaths go, there’s nothing really amazing, which I think can be excused as the story’s focused far more on the mystery than any other aspect. There are a few somewhat shocking deaths, though, so don’t think there’s nothing here to interest you if that’s your main point of interest.

Identity’s a movie I don’t really have any complaints with. The whole premise might sound generic (a killer knocking off people at a motel), but it’s done brilliantly, and is very much worth a watch, and with as popular as the film is, maybe you’ve already seen that to be true.

9/10