TERROR TRAP

TERROR TRAP

From Anchor Bay Entertainment, comes the latest in a long line of post-Millennial films obsessed with the notion of city slickers getting fucked over by booking into the wrong motel in the sticks. It almost sounds like a retread of PSYCHO, doesn't it? Oh, if only ...

The film begins, as so many horror films tend to these days, with a passage from the Bible. In this case, "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief". Which is all good and well. But I challenge you to apply that proverb to this particular film ...

In an opening gambit, a drunken blonde driver is pulled over by small-town sheriff Cleveland (Jeff Fahey). We quickly get an idea of what kind of creep he is when he proposes to let her off with her offence if she joins him for the night at a nearby motel he recommends. Being pretty, dumb and scared, she plays ball.

But this is no ordinary motel. It's run by Carter (Michael Madsen) and Jonas (Andrew Sensenig), two bickering hicks who both show early signs of being prone to random outbursts of violence.

Enter rowing couple Don (David James Elliott) and Nancy (Heather Marie Marsden), travelling through this small town setting one night until their squabbling gets the better of them and they wind up crashing their car into oncoming traffic. They've chosen the worst place imaginable to get ran off the road.

With his car no longer functioning and girlfriend Nancy suffering from an ankle injury, Don is understandably desperate to find warmth and rest for the remainder of the evening. It's worth highlighting at this point that they are, of course, in an area without mobile phone coverage (if I was an American, I'd be so pissed off - half their country seems to be without network coverage, per the films). So he perceives it as a stroke of luck when Cleveland pulls over in his police car, and offers to drive the couple to the local motel for an overnight stay.

Once at said motel, Don and Nancy are subjected to the unapologetically weird Carter. His bad acting perturbs them somewhat, but not enough to put them off attempting to settle in to their shithole room for the night. The wet blood on their room's wall might prove to be a problem for them though.

Eventually, it becomes apparent why they really shouldn't have accepted that room ...

Slickly shot by cinematographer John Lands and edited in highly efficient style, TERROR TRAP looks the business. Its occasional forays into monochrome are extremely attractive and I can't dispute that the sharp cuts set to blaring score bursts aren't suitably stirring. But, from the opening titles sequence - a montage of close-up murderous preparations that strongly echo the famous credits from SE7EN - this film is sorely lacking any identity of its own. It is totally devoid of originality.

The script is derivative, the direction doesn't really do anything other than paint by numbers, and the performances are embarrassing, considering they're delivered by a cast who really are proven to be capable of more.

TERROR TRAP feels very flat to begin with and, even when it accelerates in its second half, never truly gets going. Writer-Director Dan Garcia just doesn't have a strong enough premise, or command of his cast, to pull off anything that could match his admittedly well-executed visual style. The end result is contrived, sedate and forgettable.

As you'd expect from an Anchor Bay release though, the film at least looks great.

We get TERROR TRAP uncut in a pin-sharp DVD presentation, with clean and clear visuals that boast strong colours and fine definition. The filmic quality of the transfer is very warm and pleasing indeed, in this above average 16x9 widescreen offering.

English audio is also serviced well, in choices of 2.0 and a rousing 5.1 mix.

Beyond the colourful animated main menu page, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

There are no extras.

Have you seen VACANCY? You may not have bothered, as you may have written it off as a wishy-washy mainstream piece of shite masquerading as horror. It's actually not too bad. In fact, compared against TERROR TRAP - which rips it off chronically - it's a masterpiece.

Michael Madsen, shame on you. But at least you have the excuse that you've got to eat (although you could do with losing a few pounds, fat cunt). Anyone who buys this doesn't have that excuse though ... just the shame.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
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