Prisoner

Prisoner is a rough, disturbing little psychological thriller about a potential prison film, or rather the lonely location scouting sessions of controversial, much disliked Hollywood auteur director Derek Plato (Julian McMahon). He's an arrogant prick of a dude whose newest film has him scouring abandoned penitentiaries for that perfect location. He's alone, curiously, until all of a sudden... he's not. Out of nowhere appears the mysterious Jailor (Elias Koteas), a frightening man who forcefully imprisons Plato, mentally berates him and forces the man to look back upon his long and quite unpleasant past in both the film industry and his disaster of a personal life, prodding him with intimate questions and accusations. This is essentially a chamber piece with the two actors being the only ones who appear in the present timeline, which is punctuated by hazy flashbacks to his life before. McMahon carries himself nicely, handling a well worn arc with charisma and giving off an authentically unlikeable vibe early on. Koteas is a beast of an actor and could scare the pants off of real life convicts, as such he steals the show with a brutal, galvanizing performance. Now, these types of films usually head towards conclusions we've seen before, and I won't spoil anything except to say that although I was satisfied with the way the ending did rise up to meet the rest of the film, some won't be and may find it cliched, but hey, that's life. Nevertheless, it's a taut little mind game by way of a character study, clocking in well under ninety minutes, a sleek little piece that leaves the viewer no time to lag or lolly-gag as it trundles along through it's intense story beats. Cool stuff.

To call PRISONER a horror movie is a bit of a stretch; but, without giving away any of the plot points, the movie is horrifying. I would classify PRISONER as more of a psychological-thriller, due to the taught interplay between the two main characters.

I really like character-drive plots; and, the PRISONER did not disappoint. And, while some of the flash-backs are repetitive, they do help us get to know our protagonist better than we would in a conventional telling of the tale.

The cinematography is dark and depressing; the set dressing is impressive. I thought the acting was solid; and, the music propelled the story forward without being too jarring.

If you are a fan of zombies, vampires, special effects, and gore, don't watch PRISONER. This movie is much more for slow consideration.

I found this movie to be fairly good, due to the fact that it has one of my favorite actors in it, and had a fairly good plot with an unusual twist. I think it was more of a mystery movie then a horror, because it was leaving me wondering exactly "Why is this person doing this?" without any hint in the beginning of the movie of what exactly was going on. The actors did a good job, but you WILL need to sit through the whole movie to get a full understanding of what the whole point of being held prisoner is all about. To make a long story short, I am glad I got to see this movie because it was a little different then all the other horror movies recently released. If you like mystery/horror type movies, this is the one for you.

After presenting his new project to his producers, the controversial, arrogant and bad tempered director Derek Plato (Julian McMahon) decides to visit the location in an abandoned prison in Tennessee. While visiting the decay place, Derek is captured by a mysterious Jailer (Elias Koteas) that forces him to tell the beginning of his career and his relationship with his mother to his camera, disclosing hidden secrets in the mind of Derek.

"Prisoner" is a creepy mystery movie with a promising story, good actors and actresses but terrible and noisy edition. The intention is great of a man that somehow discovers secrets he had buried and forgotten in his mind, but the screenplay is confused and pointless and the noise in every flashback is annoying. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Sete Chaves" ("At Seven Keys")