Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
FUN BUT FLAWED, 6 Aug 2007
Arriving at a crime scene, Det. Bowman, () and Special Agent Christine Robison, () find that the work of a storied serial killer is starting again. Shortly afterward, Brandon, () Kelly, (Alethea Kutscher) Jason, () Dylan, () Cherie, (Erin Consalvi) and Laura, (Carlee Avers) find themselves on a reality TV show called "Are You Scared?" trying to overcome their worst fears. As one-by-one they begin to play the game, when they start dying they find that the whole thing had been a set-up to simply kill them off. While the two detectives try to solve the mystery of the kidnapping and murders, the remaining contestants battle each other and how to stop the killer. When they find that there's a deadly secret involved in the game and who's behind it, they race to stop him before their revenge is complete.
The Good News: There isn't a whole lot here to like. One of the main aspects is the fact that the kills are brutal and gory, offering up some pretty nice blood effects. There's a really welcoming brutality on display here that makes these kills a lot of fun to watch, and really make the villain a little bit of a threat, as there's a reason to fear them. There's a face melted away in various gory states after being exposed to acid, a wire strangulation that eventually results in decapitation, an electric drill bit bored through the forehead, a series of messy gunshots that rip up the body, the top half of the head lopped off with an ax and having a metal pipe impaled in the chest and emerging out the back, among other, gory matters. There's even one in here that comes as such a shock when first occurring that it's completely original, but also delivers an amazing jump that works perfectly. The only other facet that the film does manage to get right is the dirty, disgusting location used for the action. It looks appropriately grimy and has a feeling of abandonment that works marvelously. Sadly, these are all the film gets right.
The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot wrong here, but what is wrong are major problems. The biggest one is that there's really no originality at all in the fears displayed. A fear of the dark, a fear of losing a twin and a fear of germs aren't all that terrifying. One of them could possible be and is a touch of originality, but there's simply a feeling that it doesn't transpire to having a well-laid out trap as well as the others. It's the quickest over with, doesn't have any build-up at all and is presented in a dull, straight-forward manner as the eventual outcome is given away as quickly as possible. That one could've built up the best, as it's a genuine fear not often explored and really could've been quite excruciating, but instead is over in no time at all and doesn't have anything at all worthwhile about it. The traps themselves are pretty cool, but with the fears being so bland and unoriginal, they have no real surprise about them. They feel exactly as they would be if someone was trapped in a room and told to overcome them to escape. That this steals from several other films, quite blatantly, isn't exactly a great one either. This one has the entire concept stolen from another series completely, a few of the traps are taken out of there and several scenes feel lifted from other films as well. This just has an air of familiarity to it that really doesn't do it any favors, and by sticking to a concept that is played out and really doesn't offer much new on the concept is a big flaw. The last big flaw is that there's no real motive for throwing in a reality TV show in here, as it's completely dropped in the middle of the movie as it didn't serve anything at all to be included. This easily could've been done without them and for it to be here is a confusing one. These keep the film down a lot.
The Final Verdict: With several really big flaws and a few good moments spread throughout, there isn't a whole lot here to really recommend. This has been done much better elsewhere, so this is really only for those who have a big following on these types of films and doesn't mind seeing some things being repeated.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
if you cant be borthered to read the long review:, 13 Sep 2007
one word for this film... WEAK. The acting was poor, the gore compared to SAW was poor, the story line was poor and the evil character compared to jigsaw was infact,,,,poor.
only good part involved a head getting cut in half by an axe.
o and did i mention that the graphics and effects could have been done better by a bunch of dummies,,,,, its sooooo fake.
apart from all the above,,, brilliant. sorry but it was very,,,, well weak and poor.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
A very poor man's Saw!, 2 Jan 2009
Oh dear, some people can successfully cash in on bandwagon-jumping, however this misses the wagon completely. This is a very poor version of the Saw franchise with a couple of exceptions: The bad guy doesn't seem to have any real reason to kill the `victims' other than because of answers given to a questionnaire to be on his `show', and for the most part the `games' appear only result in death...The detectives look and act like failed actors, and they could be one of the handful of siblings that have tried to make it in the movies on the back of their more famous brother/sisters (Mr Russell, Miss Pffieffer, Mr Roberts please step forward)...
It's not totally awful, and whilst I may've fast forwarded ten minutes or so near the end, there is kind of a twist and a smidgen of plot that may make you watch until the end. The `six kids' are the usual clichés: airhead, cocky guy, token black guy, tough female lead role, and twins, they are alright bordering on wooden to daytime telly skills.
I suppose I've seen worse, but I've seen hundreds a lot better!
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