Horror for the Holidays: P2

Greetings and hello, gentle readers. This marks Day 5 of Horror for the Holidays and yes it has been a difficult ride with some of the more graphic depictions of violence but that was my own undoing. Next week, I am taking some Christmas movie requests so start churning those in. This time around we have yet another Christmas Eve story arc but of the more disturbing The Hills Have Eyes vibe with a hint of slasher with fairly well rounded characters. Will it be holly and jolly or simply feel like a present ready to be returned to the store for automatic refund? This is P2.

Blackheart from Ghost Rider??!! RUN GIRL!!!

From the view of director Franck Khalfoun (Wrong Turn at Tahoe, Maniac remake and i-Lived) comes a story of a young girl Angela Bridges (Rachel Nichols of The Woods, Alias, Resurrecting the Champ, Star Trek and Conan the Barbarian remake), a rising up and comer working in a downtown Manhattan office (which looked a bit too much like Toronto) and is stuck working later than she likes and missing her parents' Christmas party. After the cliche call to the folks and making her vow to get there she heads down the parking garage level 2 where she finds her car is dead in the water. Could be the battery, the alternator or a convenient plot device, Angela is stumped for what to do. Trusty security guard Thomas (Wes Bentley of American Beauty, Soul Survivors, Ghost Rider, The Ungodly, The Tomb, Jonah Hex and Rites of Passage) finds her in distraught and offers her the chance to spend Christmas with him. Barely knowing the guy and getting the creeper creeper creeper sensation, she declines and calls for a cab while waiting up in the lobby. Discovering the lobby door is locked and her taxi has already pulled up she rushes back down to P2 to get out through the stairs and street exit when the lights shut off plunging her into darkness. Armed with only her cellphone as a source of light Angela is grabbed and drugged with chloroform... fade to black.

Oh, I just hate working on the holidays.

Angela wakes slowly still dizzy from the chloroform and see her business suit has been removed and she is in a white dress, heels and her foot is chained to a table. Thomas begins to inform her of his undying affections for her in spite of her many sins having watched her through CCTV, he feels he can really help her to the right path... this from a guy that drugged her, stripped her and made her his captive audience. Angela must try to escape from the quite insane Thomas and get help. Can she make out alive? Will she have to resort to suicide or taking Thomas' life to be free?

A few notes on the movie now. The movie itself was shot for two months primarily at night in a real life parking garage. Rachel Nichols said she was baffled at the need for 14 indentical dresses each in a state of different dirt or tears and said in a interview thank God for costume designer Robin Bigglestone (My Daughter's Secret Life, Recipe for Murder, The Circle and Monk) labeled and prepped each one in its individual bag or she would have been putting on the wrong one each time.

It took three separate dogs to play Thomas's guard Rottweiler and they were divas for attention and cookies.

Final thoughts is Bentley's guard is a disassociate psychopath with delusions of being a good person was fascinating to watch. Nichols did not allow Angela to suffer from the fatal illness of scream queen flailing in the dark with no plans of survival but in fact was a savvy and strong girl with a brain and determined to live. Slasher meets psychological thriller. A few plot holes to be sure but overall not a bad movie just again may want to skip letting the kids watch.   

Looks like the Nestea plunge to me!