Cornered! (2009)

During their nightly poker game a group of lowlifes are terrorized in their own convenience store by a masked killer.The highlight of this film was obviously James Duval as Jimmy, who is going through heroin withdrawal. He puts on perhaps the best performance of his career. Although I learned to love him in the films of Gregg Araki and in "May", he seems to be starting a second -- even better -- phase of his acting, as seen here and in "Sushi Girl".While there is little else here that is all that memorable, and some moments seem a bit clichéd or hackneyed, it is not a bad little film. Certainly better than the average lower budget horror film. And it is great to see Steve Guttenberg, a wonderful actor whose time is not yet over.

In Los Angeles, a serial-killer with unknown identity is slaughtering clients in convenience stores. The steals the surveillance tapes and the police department has offered a US$ 500,000.00 reward for him. In a trashy convenience store, the owner Steve (Eduardo Antonio Garcia), his clients Mona (Ellia English) that works with phone sex and the whore Jess (Elizabeth Nicole), his employee Donny Donut (Peter Story) and his junky nephew Jimmy (James Duval) discuss with the carrier Morty (Steve Guttenberg) what they would do with the serial-killer if they capture him. Morty goes away and Steve invites the group to play a poker game, with Jimmy is affected by the forced abstinence. Out of the blue, they are attacked by a masked killer during a night of terror."Cornered!" is an unpleasant and stupid low-budget film with fake reviews promoting it. The uninteresting and dull story has lowlife characters and never holds the attention of the viewer. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "Brutal! A Face do Demônio" ("Brutal! – The Face of the Demon")

It's been a while since I've seen such an engrossing and engaging thriller. This is a great, slow burning film about a group of people stuck in a liquor store. I'm glad to see Steve Guttenberg back on the screen, and in a different character than usual (he's a bit nasty here), and his scenes really move the film forward and give it some heft. I also have to mention James Duvall, who is awesome here as a hallucinating drug addict. There are some cool scenes here, but this isn't Hostel, by any means, so it has less gore and more suspense. The story focuses more on the individual characters to let us into their world. The claustrophobic single room setting really sets the mood for the entire movie, and when the characters lock themselves in, it only gets more interesting. If you like slasher films and suspense, this is definitely the film for you. Give it a chance. Forget anything else you saw this year and go get Cornered! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Workers and patrons at a small, cruddy(cockroaches appear from time to time) liquor store in Los Angeles discuss how they would execute a notorious serial killer on the loose in the area not knowing he's in the midst of them listening! When a wino goes through the front store window attempting to free himself(with a bottle of stolen liquor in hand), the janitor seals up the door with planks of wood cutting off one particular entrance/exit. While participating in games of poker, what this group(which includes owner Steve(Eduardo Antonio Garcia), his methadone-addicted junkie nephew, Jimmy(James Duval), a rotund sex hotline operator, Mona(Ellia English), a donut-eating weakling janitor, Donny(Peter Story), and a hot scantily clad prostitute, Jess(Elizabeth Nicole))doesn't expect is for the psychopath to show back up in the store, awaiting each one of them curious enough to see what that noise was downstairs(Steve's apartment is up above the store where he secretly hides VCRs recording from security cameras set up in and around his place).Steve Guttenberg in a slasher movie will obviously draw some to see this movie, but he's more of a special guest star than the male lead the credits depict him as. His deliveryman, Morty, seems to be a likable chap, and, while his presence is limited, he factors in the grand reveal of the killer at the very end. Weapons of use on victims involve an ice cream cone(which gouges an eye!), cellophane(accompanied by a broken bottle of ketchup used to stab this person repeatedly), a meat slicer(which cuts one poor soul in half as he's hanging upside down by meat hooks), and, probably the best sequence, a meat cleaver(effective in how we see the victim's eyes cross as life leaves her body). While the violence sounds severe, the filmmakers don't dwell on the details so those that might squirm at meat slicer damage will be relieved to know that most occurs in a tame fashion. A detriment for many slasher fans, I imagine, is the time between one kill to the next. You'd think that when one member of the group hadn't returned that they would all venture downstairs to see what was keeping her, but CORNERED! is about getting one person alone with the killer at a time so he can do his work. Nicole is definite eye candy in her short jean skirt and tight shirt above her navel, her boobs almost spilling out on more than one occasion. Garcia's Steve is supposed to be a sort of sympathetic character in that he wants his nephew to kick his habit so he can stay clean and out of rehab, but he's also a lousy drunk who steadily became tiresome for me personally. Duval(THE DOOM GENERATION) fans will get a kick out his hallucinating junkie, the way he envisions these large roaches not allowing him to leave the store..his Jimmy stays worse-for-wear almost the entire movie. Director Maze(he gives himself some love by putting his name on a six pack of beer Steve gulps unmercifully throughout)localizes the plot almost exclusively in the liquor store(which also functions as a grocery where many customers kidnap snacks and alcohol much to Steve's dismay). The killer wears a gimp mask(with a zipper mouth)and leather gloves as he attacks his victims. This is the kind of slasher which will have many yelling at the screen to "Don't do that! Don't go down there!"