Standard slasher fare(..the kind "Scream" was poking fun at)has a psycho(Johnathon Schaech, effectively cast), a teacher so obsessed with his student Donna(Brittany Snow)that we see him murder her entire family in an attempt to have the teenager all to himself, escaping from his holding cell in a sanitarium & invading the poor traumatized girl's prom night(..quite a lavish affair, held in a prestigious hotel)murdering her friends throughout the night. He has taken a master key from a maid he kills and sneaks into the room of Donna's pals, football star Ronnie(Collins Pennie)and girlfriend Lisa(Dana Davis), slicing and stabbing various victims who find themselves alone with him, attacking them from behind with his pocket knife. The film follows Detective Winn(Idris Elba)and his men as they canvas the hotel, trying quietly to handle the situation which will eventually spiral out of control. The climax will show the obvious eventual confrontation between the unemotional, remorseless homicidal maniac and his devoted goal, Donna at her home, in the bedroom.
One might wonder why I'd give away the conclusion, but honestly this slasher follows the rules of the genre to the very letter, sore afraid of taking any interesting or original routes. Most of the stabbings(..all of them, actually)appear off-screen with the camera displaying the horrified expressions on victim's faces as they are getting the knife plunged into their stomachs..you also hear the sound of the knife as it drives into the victim repeatedly(..probably the sound-effects guy stabbing a melon). A major visual stamp for the movie shows the killer unfolding his pocket knife right before he sticks into his victims. We do get two scenes where he slices the throats of victims with blood either squirting or splattering, but the actual contact of metal to flesh is cleverly disguised with the camera appropriately placed. The film silhouettes the killer and he often springs from the dark like Michael Myers, such as a hotel closet(..this technique is used multiple times by the director)as victims open the door not knowing what awaited them. There are a lot of scenes where folks pop up scaring the daylights out of Donna..the kind of jump-scare technique(..with cued jump music)that grows tiresome really fast. While I though Schaech was appropriately creepy, he's merely a walking menace of the Michael Myers variety, a robot killing anyone in his path. The way the film produces the first confrontation between the killer and Donna in the hotel is rather contrived. And, the killer's escape from the hotel is rather preposterous. But, the screenplay of a slasher is supposed to have that final sequence where the killer and his muse finally meet and a score is settled, and this movie's is really an uninspired, "seen-it-all-before" kind of experience. What's sad is this is probably superior to the original(..which, to be honest, isn't similar to in any way). The film is professionally made, well produced, but an empty hollow shell of a slasher film, devoid of anything remarkable or satisfying. In other words, it's just right for the teen target audience it's meant for. How the killer is able to move about bodies, keeping everything quiet, with no blood getting on his clothes as he thrusts his blade into torsos repeatedly, is anybody's guess.
One might wonder why I'd give away the conclusion, but honestly this slasher follows the rules of the genre to the very letter, sore afraid of taking any interesting or original routes. Most of the stabbings(..all of them, actually)appear off-screen with the camera displaying the horrified expressions on victim's faces as they are getting the knife plunged into their stomachs..you also hear the sound of the knife as it drives into the victim repeatedly(..probably the sound-effects guy stabbing a melon). A major visual stamp for the movie shows the killer unfolding his pocket knife right before he sticks into his victims. We do get two scenes where he slices the throats of victims with blood either squirting or splattering, but the actual contact of metal to flesh is cleverly disguised with the camera appropriately placed. The film silhouettes the killer and he often springs from the dark like Michael Myers, such as a hotel closet(..this technique is used multiple times by the director)as victims open the door not knowing what awaited them. There are a lot of scenes where folks pop up scaring the daylights out of Donna..the kind of jump-scare technique(..with cued jump music)that grows tiresome really fast. While I though Schaech was appropriately creepy, he's merely a walking menace of the Michael Myers variety, a robot killing anyone in his path. The way the film produces the first confrontation between the killer and Donna in the hotel is rather contrived. And, the killer's escape from the hotel is rather preposterous. But, the screenplay of a slasher is supposed to have that final sequence where the killer and his muse finally meet and a score is settled, and this movie's is really an uninspired, "seen-it-all-before" kind of experience. What's sad is this is probably superior to the original(..which, to be honest, isn't similar to in any way). The film is professionally made, well produced, but an empty hollow shell of a slasher film, devoid of anything remarkable or satisfying. In other words, it's just right for the teen target audience it's meant for. How the killer is able to move about bodies, keeping everything quiet, with no blood getting on his clothes as he thrusts his blade into torsos repeatedly, is anybody's guess.