Cornered!

Director - Daniel Maze (Jonah and the Whale)
Starring - Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy, Short Circuit), James Duval (Gone in 60 Seconds, Donnie Darko), and Peter Story (CSI)
Release Date - 2009
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Face the evil"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Me owning this film is a result of a blind buy.  I was in Dollar General, of all places, and found this film for $3.  It did not have a case and was in a cardboard sleeve.  The sleeve said it was a previous rental but for $3 I could not resist.  I knew nothing about this film other than the DVD artwork looked bad ass.  I grabbed it and after much debate I decided to throw it in and see if it was worth the money I forked out for it.

     The film follows a random assortment of people as they wait inside a convenient store.  The group consists of a junkie who is in need of a fix, a phone sex operator, a prostitute, a doughnut eater, and the store owner.  The group is discussing a recent series of murders that has taken place in other convenient stores around town.  There is a price on the killers head and the gang tell each other how they would kill the killer if they capture him.  The delivery boy leaves and the group close up the store so they can go play poker.  One by one the group is hunted down and murdered in the way they said they would kill the murderer.  Everyone dies except for the doughnut lover and the prostitute who barricaded themselves in a room.  When morning comes the two scream out the window when they spot the delivery boy, Morty (Guttenberg), approach.  Morty is able to get inside and the two go downstairs to meet him.  Morty then kills them both before continuing his normal routine and visits the other stores he delivers to.

      This movie is a perfect example of DVD artwork selling the film instead of the quality of the movie.  This is one of the countless films released in recent years that is a chore to finish.  Before watching this I read a few reviews that favored this film.  What the hell is wrong with these people?  I could not find any of the redeeming qualities that those writers mentioned in their reviews.  The acting is decent but the cast had no direction.  They portrayed their characters very well, and for the most part, they were very believable.  However, all they did was scream at each other for the majority of the movie.  If i wanted to spend an hour and a half listening to people scream at each other I would go to my Dad's more often.  The story is not original but could have been decent for a slasher if the film was done better.  The characters all have pretty in depth back stories.  This is something of a rarity in a horror flick.  I personally would like to see this story applied again to a film and this time done correctly.  The film is set in a series of small rooms inside the store resulting in a claustrophobic setting.  This claustrophobic setting does not work well for a slasher.  When it comes to special effects and kills, this film is lacking.  Most of the kills happen off camera.  We do see the end results and the special effects are good for what they show.  However, I prefer to see the kills actually unfold on camera.  Overall, this is a boring film that is painful to watch.  I would invest my time and money in to another film.