Nine Dead

NINE DEAD is a film entirely derivative of one of the SAW sequels in its storyline of a group of nine strangers who are kidnapped and trapped in a room by a mysterious killer. As he promises to kill the group one by one, they must work together to find out why they've been chosen and how they can hope to free themselves from their terrible situation.

This is a B-movie through and through, with a premise that naturally evokes tension let down by some very pedestrian execution. When former SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH star Melissa Joan Hart is the best they can do for a big-name star then you know the film is in trouble. Thankfully NINE DEAD avoids going down the 'torture porn' route which is to be commended, but the twists and turns are so resolutely silly that you can't help but be disappointed. The best thing about it? Daniel Baldwin's random, 10 second cameo.

Oh my god. Oh my god.

So much potential. But the ending is just abysmal. Don't waste your time.

9 people are kidnapped and tied up and told that unless they discover why they are there one of them will be killed every 10 minutes. It's a reasonably familiar tale but it's fun watching them try and discover why they are there.

The film features the usual eclectic mix, drug dealer, cops, priest etc. These type of films rely heavily on having interesting characters to watch and although there are plenty of clichés on show, I found the characters pretty entertaining. There isn't any SAW like gore in this film and most of the violence is off screen. I was a bit surprised to see Melissa Joan Hart from Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame in this and she is pretty good in this. The rest of the cast also put in decent believable performances.

As the captives piece together the puzzle and the numbers deplete it all winds down a bit to a slightly disappointing climax. The end scene being one of the most abrupt and unexplained I've ever seen.

Overall I found this a fairly enjoyable if limited thriller and probably wouldn't rush to watch it again.

Thriller / crime movie. 9 people are kidnapped and locked up in one place. The kidnapper will kill one of them every 10 minutes until they find the reason they are there and the reason their lives are interconnected. Very nice and clever idea although not original since there are others with a similar mystery that must be solved against time, the top series of mystery / crime movies was probably SAW (although it also had a gore / splatter there). However, despite the suspense and mystery it was not intense enough, it was shot almost entirely in one room and the ending was purely disappointing. Nevertheless, it is worth a watch and recommended to all fans of the genre.

First I'd like to point out that the version I saw from a Blu Ray was 87 minutes long and not 98 as it's said here, I don't believe it was a cut version but merely a miss in the information slip by the company.

Much like it was a miss to suggest that Daniel Baldwin is one of the stars in it, he is technically in it BUT for 9 and a half seconds (literally), more or less an extra in one scene.

Anyway back to the actual movie, it had potential, sure we've seen these kinds of movies before (strangers in a room have to figure out what connects them or they die) but that doesn't mean that they still can't be exciting if they are clever enough, with a couple twists and good acting.

Now the actual idea is in the end a decent one, BUT it's just that all sense of mystery is gone pretty much halfway through because the clues we are given are not so much clues as it is having the motive tattooed on our foreheads.

And the characters are for the lack of better words, pretty stupid.

The acting is mostly decent William Lee Scott stood out as one of the better performances while Melissa Joan Hart stood out for having the opposite, a really poor performance.

Overall though the characters were fairly one-dimensionally written and we are given no reason to actually care for any of their fates.

So yeah maybe watch 'THE KILLING ROOM (2009)', 'CIRCLE (2015)', 'SAW (2004)', 'SAW II (2005)' or 'CUBE (1997)' instead, as they are all better examples of this kind of movie.