P2

A business woman has to work late on Christmas Eve, when she finally finishes and heads down to the parking garage, her car won't start. She asks the parking attendant to help her, but what she doesn't realize is that he is a deranged psychopath who has been watching her and wanting to be with her for quite some time now.

I had pretty low expectations for this film, after all it is set in a parking garage. Yet P2 surprised me, not only was it suspenseful, it had great performances and a pretty surprising amount of violence. With a lot of horror/thrillers these days they seem to skim out on the bloody violence, but P2 uses it very well here. It's not overly done, only used sparingly. When it is used, it's gruesome, which adds to the ick factor. P2 gets a thumbs up from me because of that.

Wes Bently plays the parking attendant and he plays crazy very well. His calm demeanour is even more sinister than what a loud lunatic would be. He wants to be Rachel Nichols' friend desperately, he is madly in love with her. In his sick and twisted way, they need/have to be together. He is there to help her realize this and is willing to kill those who either get in the way or mistreat her. This takes us into our first death and one of the most gruesome parts of the film. For those that are squeamish, they should look away because one characters gets beaten repeatedly and then some. I find myself liking Bently more and more with every film I see him in, with the exception of Ghost Rider...ew.

Rachel Nichols is the female lead, she is suppose to be the clichéd blonde bimbo in distress. P2 switches the tables around, no longer are we stuck with a stupid character who falls over when they are running away from the killer. We are given a smart and determined business woman, who is constantly showing off her cleavage. Yes, this movie for some reason has put our heroine in a white dress that was most likely done to please the male audience.

P2 isn't for everyone, I'm sure there are dozens of things wrong with it. Such as why doesn't she simply pull the fire alarm, just for starters. But the film did what it was suppose to do. Put a female in danger, have a strange and sadistic murderer follow her and the film becomes a cat and mouse game. In the endless list of films that do this, P2 is surprisingly well done. It's definitely underrated as many people seemed to have overlooked it. I wouldn't suggest you rush out and rent this today, but if you were ever interested even a little bit, check it out. That is, if you've ever heard of it.

I admit, I'm usually rough on many horror movies that come out nowadays, because...well...they suck. "P2," on the other hand, has many exciting moments and I was engaged the whole way through. The acting is solid. The actress who plays the lead does a great job at conveying real terror. I also like that she wasn't the typical big-breasted female lead who seems ripped from the pages of Maxim magazine. She is attractive, yes, but not your traditional Hollywood beauty, who's cast simply so she can have a scene where she's taking a shower and has to flee from the villain naked, with her gargantuan boobs bouncing in close-up. I loved Wes Bentley in "American Beauty," and was quite disappointed to find out that he fell off the radar after delivering that great performance as Ricky Fits. He would only pop up occasionally in braindead slasher flicks like "Soul Survivors." In "P2" he was given a chance to redeem himself, and that he did. He is a perfectly creepy villain, especially with those dark, piercing eyes. The movie is not without flaws. It has some of the expected fake scare moments and, without giving anything away, let's just say that I'm SURE it would take less than 20 minutes for the cops to show up after you make a 9-1-1 call. The filmmakers do a great job at setting up a creepy tone, starting off the film by playing "Santa Baby" over the opening credit sequence. That's ten times creepier than, say, playing a standard horror movie score. If you're sick and tired of many of the braindead teen slasher flicks that have been hitting theaters lately, this should come as a refreshing surprise. I think this film is sadly underrated.

Woman working late on Christmas eve is trapped by a psycho security guard in her office parking garage. Better than this has any right to be, this is actually a good little thriller. Psycho stalker films are not my cup of tea, but this one is actually pretty good thanks to a sense of humor, sense of horror, and a sense of place. if you've ever been in a garage you'll feel right at home at being uneasy. The director was an actor in the French horror film High Tension a film that I thought fell apart in the end, Here he's taken what worked in the earlier film and manages to make it work all the way to the end. If I have any real complaint is that the film is probably much longer than it should be, still if you like this sort of thing you're sure to be pleased.

This movie takes a long time to get going, and I frequently found myself throwing in the flag. There are a lot of events which happen that just don't make sense and don't ring true. Initially Wes Bentley irritated me, but eventually I got to like him and his character. He's pretty good at playing a dissociative psychopath. Once the story got going it was easy to forgive the obvious mistakes and just have fun with it. The setting, a parking garage, is very cold and unforgiving. It's all concrete. That aesthetic helps set a tone that Thomas is going to be unforgiving. closed, and cold with people he doesn't like. Angela (Rachel Nichols) doesn't suffer from stupid chick syndrome. She makes a few smart moves, and that makes it easy to root for her and empathize with her. You want her to kick butt, but Thomas is a pretty strong opponent.

DUDE!!!! I thought this movie was gonna suck but stuck at home trying to avoid COVID I was looking for some mindless horror films to watch and stumbled upon this one. I instantly recognized the weirdo from American Beauty and he's 10x more messed up in this one. I don't hold my breath much in thriller / horror films but I have to admit I did a few times in this one and it was actually very well acted and at times terrifying. There's a few scenes you will never forget and it's not one of those horror movies where you're saying omg are you kidding me... the girl being terrorized is actually very intelligent, she doesn't do any of the cliche horror film idiot chick moves, she's a survivalist sealing with a deranged obsessed maniac. It's gripping at times and keeps you guessing and pining for more excitement. Very gory and suspenseful and this could happen to anyone. It's a hidden gem for those of us who like these heinous films. My girlfriend left the room cause she couldn't take it. LOL. Merry Xmas!!!