[Blackout]
Plot:Involves a group of people who are stuck in a lift for 24 hours. One is a young woman in a hurry to get her dying grandmother to the hospital. The other is a teen, and the last of the group trapped inside is a psychotic killer.

Cast:Amber Tamblyn, Aiden Gillen, Armie Hammer.

My Thoughts:When the lights go out, the killer comes out to play.

Review:Honestly, going into a film where three people are trapped in an elevator, waiting for someone to reveal themselves as a psychotic killer...yeah I had my doubts. But Rigoberto Castaneda's "Blackout", while it's not the most intense horror film one will ever see, it is a good movie in tt's own way. The film follows three young people, a guy who has a daughter, a girl who is on her way to see her grandmother who was recently involved in a car accident, and a guy who just killed his girlfriends father in self-defense, and is now planning to runaway to Paris with her.

Yep, three very interesting people indeed. Tamblyn plays the grandma girl of course, and in this film she's alot braver than previous characters she's played. For example, all of the trembling and twitching she did in "The Grudge 2" was enough to terrify a chain-smoker who's gone an entire day without a pack. The film basically thrusts all of these people into an elevator at the same time, and allows the viewer...with what we already know about all three of them so far, to sit back and watch to see who of the three is this dangerous psychotic murderer.

Of course that revelation of one of the three isn't given to us right away, and along with what we know about the characters already, more is given to us through flashbacks post elevator-incident, which occurs when a blackout happens as the three are inside the elevator. The more we get through flashbacks, the more we begin to piece together who might or might not be the killer amongst the three. And most importantly, why. This is certainly a thinking horror fans film, in that it doesn't just take blood, guts, and gore and splatter it across the screen. Nor does it have a mega-high body count.

But rather it relies on a very diverse and chilling story. Putting the viewer in front of one important question, what would you do if you were in a dark elevator with two people, and one of them were a crazed-killer? Capable of being set off and or triggered by any little thing, at any little time? It's a very terrifying question, and as a viewer...we're allowed to ponder that question as these three characters interact with one another, with very interesting and eventually negative results.

As the ordeal gets deeper and deeper, and longer and longer, personalities start to emerge, change, and through discussions and little bits and pieces being revealed about each of the three characters, the villain amongst them starts to emerge more and more. While the ordeal is interesting to watch, one thing that Castaneda did wrong I think was not adding enoguh depth to the characters, nor did he really give us an equal amount of suspicion to surround all three.

At around the middle of the movie, with or without the piece that reveals who the killer is, you'll have most likely figured out who the kilelr out of the three is, even though Castaneda does a good job at masking how things will ultimately end, just long enough for the ending to come as a shock and a pretty intense finale. Everything before that is certainly noteworthy, but the characters with alot more depth of personality and backstory, and alot more suspicion and motive...would've really pushed thismovie up into astronomical levels of suspense and chills.

Instead, while the intriguing and refreshing premise keeps the viewer amsued and entertained subtley for the majority of the film, it's still far too easy to weed out the killer on your own before they're revealed in the films climax. "Blackout" is a film that deserves atleast one watch. While it won't kepe your heart racing or anything, it's still one of those chilled horror films that presents a good and unique story, and sets up a decent enough ending.

Positives:Refreshing story, good performance by Amber Tamblyn, good ending, and good music score.

Negatives:Too easy to spot the killer before they're revealed, the characters lacked depth.

Overall:Two and a half stars out of 4.





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