100 Feet

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Maybe more than I should have. It's amazing how this film could keep me interested when all I expected was to enjoy 90 minutes or so of Famke Janseen on my screen. She delivered a really good performance, naturally... but the highlight of the film was the ghost himself. Very scary stuff. I got goosebumps at every scene and that's hard to say with the recent garbage out there these days. As far as characters... well done. You ever watch those films where every line is like a narration for the audience? As if we're all dummies? Well, there's no instructional dialogue between characters here; it's just plain as day and straight to the point. Eric Red is really good director as well, I'll be looking for more of his work from here on out. Great effects, great story, I can only take off points just to be unbiased. I'm impressed. Hollywood should step back and take notes. This is how it's done. Stop stealing ideas from Japan and Korea. Use 100 Feet as a blueprint and you'll sell more tickets you hacks.

When I sat down to watch the 2008 movie "100 Feet" it was solely for two reasons. The first being that Famke Janssen was in it, and the second being that it is a horror movie, of course.

I hadn't heard about the movie prior to finding it by random luck. I didn't even read the synopsis, I just saw that it was a horror movie and saw Famke Janssen on the DVD front cover, and that was all I needed.

It turned out that "100 Feet" was actually a rather enjoyable movie. There was a good flow to the storyline, with little useless scenes to serve as filler. Everything here served a purpose and was straight to the point.

They had some really impressive effects in the movie, and I must admit that it really helped lift up the movie quite well. Especially the scene with the mauling in the bedroom. That was actually some of the most impressive special effects I have seen in a long, long time.

"100 Feet" was driven by a good storyline, but equally so by a rather good performance by the cast. And while they had a rather small cast, there was a bit more resting on the shoulders of the those performing. And I will say that both Famke Janssen and Bobby Cannavale carried themselves and the movie quite well.

This is definitely a horror movie that is well worth taking the time and effort to sit down and watch. And there are some jump scares here and there throughout the movie.

Sadly, 100 Feet, the title of screenwriter Eric Red's 2008 horror starring Famke Janssen, does not refer to the many legs of a giant flesh-eating centipede—a shame, 'cos I reckon that would have made for a far more original and believable movie than this well-acted, but ultimately very silly ghost story.

Janssen stars as Marnie Watson, who has returned home after 752 days in prison for killing her abusive husband; it is there that she is to serve the remainder of her sentence under house arrest, fitted with an electronic tag to restrict her movement to a radius of—you guessed it!—100 feet. As Marnie slowly begins to put her life back in order (painting over blood stains on the wall, scaring homeless guys, screwing the delivery boy etc.) she finds her progress hampered by the very angry ghost of her dead husband, who hasn't quite finished with using his wife as a punch bag.

Red, whose earlier writing credits include the excellent thriller The Hitcher and cult vampire hit Near Dark, clearly possesses some skill behind the camera managing a creepy atmosphere, confidently tackling some complex effects and pulling off a few effective scares, but it seems as though, in changing roles, he's forgotten the importance of a really tight script; glaring plot-holes and lapses in logic blight this film from start to finish! (I'm not going to waste time going into details, but if you're interested, check out the film's message board on IMDb—plenty of other people have listed them for me).

It is thanks to Janssen's presence (she's still a major hottie and acquits herself admirably in her role), and one particularly grisly death scene that had me double checking the DVD's rating (yes, it really is only a 15 certificate), that I'm willing to overlook some of the film's minor problems, but a talented, easy-on-the-eye lead and some nasty gore only excuses so much.

Next time Eric, iron out the uglier creases before going into production and you might have another hit on your hands (oh, and feel free to take the killer centipede idea and run with it—seriously, that would make one hell of a film!).

Saw this at a film fest in Germany and its really not a bad horror drama. Marnie Watson (Famke Janssen) is released from prison but has to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest. This is the same house in which she killed, in self defense, her Police Officer husband Mike Watson (Michael Paré).

Plot wise this movie falls a little bit flat. There is no explanation to all the events that occur in this film. Shanks seems to take a very strange interest in Marnie. Even to the point of parking outside her house and watching her day and night. But there is no real reason for this, he has a hunch that perhaps Marnie didn't kill Mike. The acting overall was fine, I quite like Janssen and she played this part well. Although I thought she was very calm considering the circumstances.

Directed by Eric Red, who I knew little about. When I checked it appears he has done other films, things like Cohen and Tate, and has quite a few writing credits. There are some nice well done scenes in this film, a few jump type moments but nothing really scary. There is one quite horrific scene in the bedroom when the ghost of Mike takes a dislike to Marnie's new beau. The effects were done well, though a little bit over dramatic at the end.

This is a Horror/Thriller but I would say leans more to the Horror genre than Thriller. It could have gone more down the Thriller route, and there were enough plot lines running through to create a decent Thriller.

All in all it was an enjoyable film that held my interest, but left me asking more questions than it answered.

100 feet is an openly aggressive film that does well to keep your pulse pounding all the way up to the flat line ending. I enjoyed the idea behind the story and for the most part felt as though it was well portrayed. Several times you find yourself having to stretch your imagination in order to play along but nothing I would consider a deal breaker. I highly appreciated the amount of time and attention spent on the gore effects. On the other side of that coin a little more time and effort put into actually frightening the viewer would have been well received. Sadly this is a film that would have ranked much higher had the ending not brought the momentum to a stand-still. As is, still a decent flick.