 "Photo: Summit Entertainment")
It's funny, these days, how much America feeds off of gore and exploitation-based horror movies. These torture films that flood the theaters with blood are now occupying screens at any time of year; even the season to be jolly isn't sacred anymore. Now, the Christmas themed, how-the-hell-do-I-get-out-of-this-parking-garage-with-a-psycho-killer movie, "P2" continues the trend of making any time torture time.
In "P2," Rachel Nichols (previously seen in the TV series "Alias" and who will be seen an upcoming movie starring Tom Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War") is a young New York executive named Angela Bridges working extreme overtime on Christmas Eve.
When she finally gets to leave to go to a family party, she is seemingly alone. Alone, that is, until she can't start her car in the parking garage and meets up with a "friendly" security guard, (Wes Bentley, of "American Beauty") who tries to help her. After his failed attempt, she rejects his invitation to stay with him and enjoy a Christmas meal.
So, as she is walking, seemingly alone again, to try to figure out a way to get out of the locked down parking garage, she is attacked by the once friendly security guard.
Moments in movie time later, she wakes up chained to a dinner table in a new, pretty, skimpy dress (ahh... the woman's wardrobe in horror movies) with a security guard who has been watching her for months and just wants to spend some time with her.
Now the game is on as she must figure out a way to escape from the "P2" level of the parking garage and to get away from a pretty creative and yet boyishly creepy guard named Thomas.
If you may have noticed the hint of sarcasm in my tone while writing the synopsis, you can sense the annoyance I felt after an hour and a half of this mindless entertainment. Horror movies can be brilliant when the characters have more layers to them than one skimpy white dress and a business card playing opposite a one layer security guard uniform covered in blood.
If you want to thrill me, shock me, or even keep me from rolling my eyes, you have to generate a story and a cast with more than a kill, stalking scene, and repeat formula. You need to add some ingenuity, some style, and some more intelligent dialogue to give your actors and your audience something to work with other than bloody makeup and excessive gore.
Take the classic, "The Exorcist" for example; even in the seventies, that movie was full of its disgusting elements of blood and bile. However, what makes that film stand the test of time is the fact that it had a developed plot line in which you knew the background and lives of the three main characters before the evil entered the house.
Five minutes of Rachel Nichols working in her office and taking a call from her sister is not enough. Neither does one scene of Wes Bentley dancing to Elvis' "Blue Christmas" with a zoom shot to a picture of him dressed as the King cover his life story. Save some money on the special effects and take the time to let me learn more about the characters so that I can be more invested in their fates.
A plot hole aside, "P2" does have its moments. Some of the chase scenes around the garage and especially a claustrophobic elevator scene are beautifully crafted and executed to maximum terror level.
These scenes show the potential in first time director Franck Khalfoun who has a genuine gift for making you feel as if you are in the cold and damp parking garage with the corporate Angela and the working class Thomas. He knows just how to angle the camera to build suspense in the already eerie setting. If only when writing he could have used the same imagination.
The acting, particularly from psycho voyeur, Wes Bentley, is done well. He takes what little he is given and tries his best to flesh out his character. In moments of dark comedy to fits of rage, he demonstrates the same level of intensity that he brought to, "American Beauty." He is a talented actor who could easily breakthrough the tough surface of lower level Hollywood if given a richer and more textured character.
Rachel Nichols is believable and can carry along on a limping leg in this horror film. She fit the role of the young executive, but she could have easily given more energy to her role as victimized woman.
Overall what more could one expect from horror flick about a psycho and a woman in a parking garage? It plays out every guess you could have about what happens next and never really strays from the conventions of the genre. Even with its moments of greatness, it fails to lift itself out of the ground, as the story would rather be a bloody mess of a film.
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