Messages Deleted

A movie that starts off with a mockery of clichés and then goes on to show that it contains each one of them. There is blood, there is a workaholic cop, a struggling professional in a dysfunctional relationship who realizes he cares for his girl in the moment of crisis, the prodigal protégé' and a "twist" that could be spotted from the moon. I had narrowed down on the eventual villain 20 mins into the movie, and so will you.

Performances are forgettable, a very lame and unconvincing attempt by the actors to show sexual tension between their respective characters, and its as if death, even of your loved ones, can be forgotten in a matter of minutes.

I am not even writing this review properly, coz seriously, even trashing this movie seems like a waste of time. You wanna stay away from this one, trust me.

I had very low expectations going into this movie. It has absolutely no marketing or buzz factor (hence I am the first to review it on IMDb) and Matthew Lillard seems to be beyond his prime. Although the plot seemed very original and intriguing. After watching the film, I must admit I am hungry for more. The ideas are unique and the the story is beyond catchy. Without giving away spoilers, the story reminded me of looking at a photograph within a photograph. At first glance it seems too abstract to be realistic but once you uncover the idea behind it you are left memorized. Lillard gave a stunning performance beyond what I thought he was capable of. It's not just a slasher horror, yet an intense mystery thriller that could have twisted in any way, shape or form towards the end. After everything unraveled I found myself wanting to watch it again to full grasp the plot in a new light. Here we have a prime example of true film screen magic where it does not take a hundred plus million dollar budget or an A-list actor/actress in order to entertain. I give this movie a strong recommendation for anyone who appreciates it's respected genre and the art of film in general.

7/10.

I thought it would be a boring movie, but to my surprise it was very tense and exciting and not at all predictable.

It's good, recommended. Look.

Good to see Lillard in a horror movie again, shame it's this one. By no means a terrible movie, it's not great either. It starts with enough promise that you keep watching, hoping it will keep it up.

Unfortunately, it doesn't. It gets sillier and sillier until the easily foreseeable ending. As the title says, it suffers from the 'spiraling into mediocrity' syndrome, something many movies today seem to have. A writer had an interesting opener and premise, but had NO idea how to conclude it on the same level.

I'd give it a 6, but only because i'm a fan of low budget thrillers/horror movies. If you're not into the genre, you'd probably be better off skipping this one...

Screenwriter Larry Cohen has over the past few decades churned out a number of screenplays that are offbeat and entertaining. However, not even Cohen is always perfect, and "Messages Deleted", which he scripted, is a big disappointment. The movie goes wrong in a number of ways. The main protagonist is a big turn-off - he's annoying in ways that are not interesting, and it's hard to be on his side as his predicament gets worse. He's also stupid, doing things no person of reasonable sense would do that get him further in trouble. Though the police are also stupid as well, missing some obvious clues that would show them that the protagonist is innocent of the charges against him. The movie has passable production values for a low budget independent Canadian production, but you don't go to a movie just for that.