[99 Pieces]
Plot:Tells the story of one man who must lock himself in a house for forty-days and forty-nights while he discovers how his life of lies turns into a puzzle. However he needs to work fast, because slowly, electricity, food, water and eventually his wife will be taken away if he doesn't figure it out fast enough.

Cast: Anthony Falcon, April Potter, Marcus Shelby, Lauren DeLong.

My Thoughts:Pretty clever Indie Picture

Review:"99 Pieces" falls into the genre of what I like to call "wtf? films". Films that have a person or persons minding their own business, and going about their life until someone snatches them up and next thing they know they're playing a sadistic game with some unseen psychopath. Hence the term "wtf?". "99 Pieces" follows a man named Joshua Licet (Anthony Falcon) who is going through some rough times with his wife Rebecca (April Potter). One day, he wakes to find her gone and then is presented with an unseen enemy, who puts him into a game with strict rules. Rules which he must abide by in order to save his wife's life. Josh must now solve an actual puzzle using actual puzzle pieces, pieces which somehow connect his life piece by piece. And he only has 40 days to do it.

"99 Pieces" does follow in the footsteps of films like "Saw" which features a villain who grabs people and forces them to play games for sins they've commited. But "99 Pieces" is certainly it's own movie, as it takes the typical cliches you'd see in films like this that follow a particular and specific route, and adds some twists to them to make them more original. "99 Pieces" also doesn't bathe in blood and severed limbs like the "Saw" movies do. Instead, it relies more on the tension of the situation, relationships, and character development. Falcon does an excellent job as the character of Joshua who at first seems like a nice guy with a few temper issues, but soon we learn as the film goes on, that he's alot deeper and alot shadier than he first appears on the surface. This is pretty much the blueprint for "99 Pieces", this sick game which someone is playing with Joshua and his wife, a game which exposes a web of lies, deceit, and other sins.

But the interesting thing about the picture is...no one is immune. This is truly a film where you're not sure who to feel sory for because every character in "99 Pieces" operates in that gray area of life morality wise. In turn, those characters actually become the good guys in the picture, while everyone who operates beyond the gray area on a total immoral slant are labeled as the villains. Another thing to appreciate about "99 Pieces" is the real life aspect of it. Perhaps it was the fact that the film is an indie horror pic, and indie pics usually feel alot more realistic. But the characters, the situations dealt with and touched upon, and the betrayal aspects are all things that could happen and probably have happened to many people in real life.

There's no real breaking-the-boundaries-of-reality moments in this picture, or anything that one could say is way out of left field as far as the plot and events which transpire are concerned. As the star of "99 Pieces", Anthony Falcon's character Josh is a very tortured man. Not only when he is forced to relive his sins during the game, but also because the person behind it all holds him to a point system....where he can choose to see his wife for a short period of time, accept another puzzle piece, or take some of the bare necessities like food, drink, etc. In a situation like this, it's alot more tormenting on a level than anything in "Saw" due to the fact that things one would usually take for granted are being given to this guy for short amounts of time.

Er go, he begins to appreciate them more and realize how flawed of a person he had truly become over the course of his life. The climax of the film gives a new meaning to the word twist, and comes as a pretty unexpected development on some levels but in the end, makes alot of sense from a story standpoint. "99 Pieces" does lack excitement and the usual blood and gore that would be present in a picture within this particular subgenre, but this dramatic horror/morality tale more than makes up for it with good performances, a strong story, and a very realistic overall tone.

Positives:Great performances by Falcon and Potter as the two leads.

Negatives:The film moves a bit too slow at times. Needed atleast one good gory death.

Overall:A satisfactory indie horror picture.





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