P2 (2007): Reviewed by BRYAN SCHUESSLER
P2 was directed by Franck Khalfoun and this was his directorial debut. You may have noticed him in Alexandre (Andre) Aja’s Haute Tension (High Tension-USA) as an actor. He is also directing the upcoming Silent Night, Deadly Night remake. Oh boy, everyone knows how much I LOVE remakes! BLAH! Anyways, if Aja is working with him on that project, it should be good, if not awesome. I love Aja’s work!
Speaking of Alexandre Aja, he is also the writer and producer of P2.
Aside from directing the magnificent Haute Tension (High Tension-USA, Switchblade Romance-UK), he also is directed Mirrors (2008)(remake), The Hills Have Eyes (2006)(another remake), and the upcoming Piranha 3-D (2009)(another remake). I like Aja’s work very much, so if I am going to see a remake and enjoy it, I’m sure it will be an Aja remake, and not someone else.
Gregory Levasseur co-wrote P2 with Aja. Levasseur’s credits as writer include Piranha 3-D (2009), Mirrors (2008), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), and Haute tension (2003). It seems Levasseur and Aja have quite a professional relationship going in the horror genre movie-making world!
Wes Bentley (Ghost Rider-villain, Weirdsville-drug addict, American Beauty-weird drug dealer that videotaped everything and sold awesome pot) plays Thomas, the lonely parking garage security guard. He played an unnatural villain in Ghost Rider as Blackheart, the strung-out drug addicted slacker in Weirdsville, and the video-voyeur freak that sells primo pot in American Beauty. Suffice to say, I kind of had some idea that he would not be playing the run of the mill average and mentally sound parking lot security guard.
Rachel Nichols plays Angela, the ditzy blonde that gives new meaning to dumb-blonde. Nichols’ character does a disservice to strong female leads everywhere. Nichols has been in 17 episodes of Alias. She has been casted in the upcoming G.I.Joe: Rise of Cobra, and will be aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise in J.J. Abrams Star Trek remake.
The movie was decent. I guess I was expecting a little bit more, seeing as Andre Aja wrote the script, along with Levasseur. It had some suspense here and there, but nothing outstanding. I did enjoy several scenes of gore, a dog getting beat and then impaled on a crowbar and a man gutted, and then crushed by a car. The best part of that car smash man scene was that his intestines were spilled out all over the ground and he is still alive, so time to smash him some more with the car. Another really good scene was where an eyeball is stabbed with a sharp object. The effects on that scene were very nice.
If the plot drags a little in the beginning and seems cliche, stick around for the gory scenes. If you are a gorehound like me, you definitely will admire them.
The plot reads like this: Business woman working late at a big office building is one of the last employees to leave Christmas Eve for the night and gets stuck in the building after it is locked up and her car is not starting.Then, creepy security guard in the parking garage (played by none other than creepy Wes Bentley) has an uncomfortable moment with her while trying to help her get the car started and invites her to a Christmas dinner with him in his security office, even though she told him what a rush she was in to get to her family for the holidays. Uber-creepy!!!
WAIT!!! Is that creepy security guard crazy??? You guessed it. That part of the movie is predictable and cliche. So now that the plot is taken care of, on to the gore. I don’t mind a simple-minded plot if its just filler for some nice nasty gore scenes. That is what I got outta this film- a standard plot and some serious gore. It was a decent film and I enjoyed the gore. Really, if the gore in the film was omitted, I might have been fairly bored with it. I think Wes Bentley’s performance is always creepy- I mean he is a creepy guy. He played a drug addict in Weirdsville, a very weird drug dealer in American Beauty, and the freaky leader of the demons from hell in Ghost Rider…the guy is just creepy!
Rachel Nichols is playing probably the DUMBEST character in the film. The bimbos in Friday the 13th movies have more brains than this chick. She does show some ingenuity at the conclusion of the film and I was shocked. So i have to say the plot was simple and predictable, but the gore and blood showed some inventiveness and skill. I was happy with the pace of the film because it definitely could have dragged on much more than it did, and the director kept it moving right along. It is worth a look at for the gore and if you like creepy Wes Bentley than this is your film. Maybe if Andre Aja directed this, along with writing it, the film would have been more successful. I’m looking forward to Aja’s take on Piranha…even though I hate remakes. He really succeeded with The Hills Have Eyes. I loved that film. So check out creepy Wes Bentley in P2. (hey, did i use the adjective creepy enough times???)
