ARE YOU SCARED?

ARE YOU SCARED?

Opening with a girl walking through a dimly lit corridor in cuffs, with a flashing contraption chained around her neck, and a distorted male voice informing her that she has 60 seconds to complete a task - or else, it's not hard to see what film is being ripped off here.

The girl is told that all she needs to do is press two buttons in sequence. She has to walk barefoot over broken glass to get to the first one. Once she's done that, she discovers she has 30 seconds left to dip her face into a vat of water and nudge the second button with her nose. Only it's not water, it's acid ...

Later, Detective Jay turns up at the scene with an armed response team, but all he finds is the girl's charred corpse. It seems he was tipped off by the killer, and that this game has being continuing for two years.

The "Feds" send criminal profiler Christine (Caia Coley, ED GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAIN FIELD) to help out, much to Jay's initial annoyance.

Meanwhile, several teens awake separately in an abandoned warehouse. They don't know each other, and none can recall how they got to be there. Scared and a little pissed off, they relax somewhat when a distorted male voice tells them over a Tannoy speaker that they are contestants on a reality TV show called Are You Scared?.

The group are told that each must individually confront their gravest fears, with those who cope going through to the final. The voice tells them the events are being broadcast live. Meanwhile the well-dressed, disfigured man behind the voice watches them from a room filled with CCTV monitors.

First to rise to the challenge is the boisterous Jason, who makes his way to a separate room where he watches his own audition tape in which he reveals his worst fear is being operated on while still awake.

The voice tells Jason he has 60 seconds to find a key that will stop the room he's in from exploding. A tray full of surgical instruments sits on a table before him, and behind him is an x-ray scan showing that the key has been implanted in his own chest. This scene ends, predictably, with a bang.

As siblings Dylan and Cherie prepare unwittingly to be the next contestants, our detectives start to gather clues in the outside world - determined to stop the madman from completing the latest of his complex, sadistic games ...

Have you seen SAW? If so, this is utterly pointless. I've never seen a bigger rip-off. Ever.

Devoid of originality, too dumb to even disguise it's obvious influence, and going for the predictable "reality TV" spin to prevent itself from copyright offences, ARE YOU SCARED? couldn't be more redundant.

Which is a shame, as the performances are okay, director Andy Hurst (YOU'RE DEAD ...) has a keen eye for sharp editing and slick visuals, and there's an attractive young cast to keep things interesting on an aesthetic level.

But this is hideously predictable, pilfering elements from all three SAW movies, while adding a cursory nod at MY LITTLE EYE along the way. The problem with doing this is that it makes you think of the source films which, regardless of your opinions on them, are superior in every way.

Still, at least it's short and snappy at 75 minutes in length.

Revolver's disc offers the film uncut in a pin-sharp anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer. Colours and shade are evenly balanced, and there's no grain on offer.

The English 2.0 does an equally impressive job at being loud, consistent and clear.

The film can be accessed via 12 chapters.

There's no extras on offer here, just two forced trailers that open the disc - for THE KILLING FLOOR and WRESTLEMANIAC, respectively.

Even the cover openly flaunts this movies aspirations towards exploiting the success of the SAW franchise. Competent in a TV-movie style, occasionally gruesome but ultimately forgettable and pointless stuff.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Revolver
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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