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Cast: Steve Guttenberg, James Duval, Peter Story, Elizabeth Nicole, Eduardo Antonio Garcia, Ellia English, David Basila, David Jean Thomas
A serial killer stalks Los Angeles convenience marts, where he tortures and slays the occupants. When store owner Steve (Eduardo Antonio Garcia) and his buddies begin a poker game one night, the stakes are higher than they can imagine. The players start to disappear, and when they see one of their friends murdered via security camera footage, the race for survival begins.
You might find it hard to imagine Steve Guttenberg in a horror film but I thought he did a pretty good job in this one but with the film having a mix of dark humor and suspense helped make his role a bit more believable I thought. As the film opens the news channels on Television are reporting on this crazed killer that is on the loose and then it switches to a store owner and his buddies and workers who are talking about the killings and what they would do to the madman if they was confronted by him. Guttenberg plays a deliver man in the film so he isn't in the film as much as you might think but does play a major character. Like any film I thought this had the potential to be much better than it turned out to be but it still did some good things. One problem the film suffers from is long periods without anything really happening like the poker table scene which seemed to drag on forever. I do like that the director took the time to flesh out the characters for us a bit but a shorter scene with less talking that led into more killing would of served the over-all story better. I also liked the twist of having the killer off his victims in the way they said they would kill him, yes he over hears them talking. A few of the killings were pretty graphic, I would of liked to have seen a few more in place of the chatter but I still enjoyed the film for what it was. The cast was pretty solid, each actor made their character believable as can be for such a film and the setting inside the store was moody and had the right amount of atmosphere to create some suspense when needed. This is the debut feature film of Writer/Director, Daniel Maze and I thought he did a pretty good job over-all considering it was his first time out. A little better editing here which in turn would of shortened the film a little could of made this a solid horror flick but the way it stands it was still entertaining enough to recommend and I always enjoy seeing Guttenberg again. If you like the horror genre I think you too will find this to be a decent flick that serves it's purpose.
Released by Lightning Entertainment/ Phase 4 Films
*** Out Of *****