P2 (2007)

This film actually reminds me a lot of "Vacancy" a movie which I really loved. With the cameras all around the garage, the 2 police officers turning up in the middle, things like car and cell-phone breaking down. and an intense game of cat and mouse. Anyway, I did enjoy this movie, it's well worth a watch if you like thriller movies. I was expecting this to be more of a psychological thriller rather than an action thriller.

It seems to be a rule of many thrillers, that if a vicious dog makes an appearance you can be sure it shall be put to use against a protagonist. Another rule stipulates that if there are cellphones they shall, for whatever reason, not work.Unfortunately for the movie, not only does the female lead's phone abandon her, so does her brain. The synopsis of this film suggested a character that had to use her wits to overcome her captor, and her own inner-problems or limitations or something to that effect. And of course, being stuck in an abandoned parking garage it had me intrigued. But the character (Angela, played by Rachel Nichols)) was so poorly developed it was hard to empathise or sympathise with her; we never knew where she came from or what was going on with her life or how she was feeling. And when a film has only two main characters this is of itself a major problem.As for the other half, the antagonist Thomas played here by Wes Bentley, screaming, and crazy angry stares don't account for character development. We understand that he is alone, possibly lonely, coz he sorta kinda says as much (towards the end of the film, mind). But that's as far as we go into his fractured psyche which again leaves us with another character we cannot on any level relate to. Though I will say his evil deeds are annoying and grotesque, and I'm referring here to the lone, obligatory blood'n'guts scene which I found to be highly distasteful. So you do sorta end up hating him and praying for his demise but for the wrong reasons.And then there were flaws with logic (as another reviewer pointed out), in dealing with her seeming inability to find a fire alarm and set it off, or phoning 911 when she had the time to. Of course, if she had done so it would've ended the whole film a lot sooner, although I'm not sure if that would've been an altogether bad thing.If you're looking for good thriller that knows how to create suspense, I'd go either for Red Eye with the wonderful Rachel McAdams and Cillian Muprhy; or the tense, fast-paced A Lonely Place to Die with Melissa George - not only does this movie have a better story, it has some lovely cinematography to boot.I give it a 3 outta 10 coz I didn't find the acting all too bad; it wasn't too bad to look at, either; and it certainly wasn't the worst I've seen.

A businesswoman (Rachel Nichols) is pursued by a psychopath (Wes Bentley) after being locked in a parking garage on Christmas Eve.The film was directed by Franck Khalfoun, written and produced by Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur. The trio previously worked on "The Hills Have Eyes" (2006). Aja has said, "With a strong plot in the vein of High Tension, P2 gives us a chance to further explore the survival aspect of the terror movie." This really is a tense, suspenseful film.The film is almost disgustingly gory, especially with the office chair death. Horror fans will eat it up, even if it makes them squirm in their seats.Although reviews were mixed or negative, one man surprisingly came to its defense. Roger Ebert liked the film, giving it 3 out of 4 stars, and stated in his review that "although the plot may seem like a formulaic slasher film, P2 is in fact a very well made, atmospheric thriller with gritty yet realistic characters." Ebert is spot on, and coming from someone who is not generally kind to horror films, this praise is well-received.

Angela (Rachel Nichols) is a hard working businesswoman. It's Christmas Eve and she's one of the last to leave the building. Her car doesn't start and the only person there is security guard Thomas (Wes Bentley). She's in a rush to go to her sister's party. The taxi cab comes but she discovers all the doors locked. The lights go out and the building is shut down.This is a very strip down horror story. The setting is a simple non-descript business building and underground parking lot. The movie is mostly just two actors. Nichols is a reasonable actress whose biggest asset in this movie is her cleavage. Bentley is a creepy nerd-like character but he's not scary enough. There is some value to this paint-by-number strip down horror, but in the end, the value isn't all that great.