[Kill Theory]
Plot:Involves a group of friends who visit a remote vacation home to celebrate their college graduation. While there, they are put into a horrifying test by a mysterious killer who forces them into a game where they have to kill each other in order to survive.

Cast:Agnes Bruckner, Taryn Manning, Patrick Flueger, Teddy Dunn, Theo Rossi, Greg Bryk, Daniel Franzese, Steffi Wickens, Ryanne Duzich.

My Thoughts:I have a theory.....try something new!

Review:Many people (myself included) have wondered why Lionsgate won't release the horror pic "Kill Theory". The film has been given release dates, and then snatched from those dates. After seeing it finally, I realize now why LGF is holding onto it so tightly. The movie just doesn't deliver. "Kill Theory" follows a group of friends who head up to the lead guys fathers house for some final good times before they're done with college. The usual shit is expected to occur, sex, drugs, booze, etc. But there's a guy who commited a horrible crime many years ago, and just got out of the mental hospital after doing his time.

Well, it wasn't actually a crime. It was one of those..."what would you do?" scenarios. See he was a mountain climber, and when the rope started to break during his and his friends climb...he decided to cut his three friends loose and let them fall to their deaths. Thus saving himself in the process. However the press labeled him a killer, and the cops instead of tossing him in the slammer decided he was just mentally unbalanced. Thus his stay in the nuthouse. Now that he's out, he decides to play a similar game with this group of kids.

By trapping them inside the house, and telling them they have until 6 am the next morning to kill each other or they all die. The last person left standing at 6 am, will be allowed to go free. Can we say..."Saw" anyone? Granted, not every movie where a group of people have to make a terrible decision to save their own skin can be parelelled to "Saw", but the scenario is certainly familiar. And since "Saw" has become a juggernaut of a box-office success...it kind of makes one think "Saw" is influencing these films when there were no movies like this released before "Saw", and now that "Saw" is going on 6 films...all of a sudden, there's been a flood of these sorts of movies.

At any rate, the silly teens get a message from the guy showing one of their friends playing his game. She decides to disobey his orders, and she pays for it. So the teens decide to try and make a run for it, but the mystery man has the house and the area surrounding it booby-trapped which one of the main characters finds out the hard way, and has also conveniently snatched the laser-scope rifle of the lead guys father. So he can pretty much blast anyone who thinks about sprinting away. Thus...the teens have to play his game, and we're left to watch 80 minutes of the "who will crack first?" game show.

Movies like this are just so predictable for one reason, secrets. When it comes to a circle of friends in a horror film, everyone's got the same freakin' secrets. Someone fucked someone behind someone's back, someone in the group is the one everyone talks shit about when they're not around, or in some cases when they are around, someone is the groups whipping boy, and then there's the love triangle aspect where someone used to date someone and now that the other someone is seeing someone else...the recently dumped someone can't stand it. Ah....predictability, isn't it grand?

These are the problems that this group has, and you would think college kids, seniors of all things, would be done with such immature bullshit by now but well...no, they're not. Because what kind of horror movie would it be if they were eh? These are the things that slowly crack the foundation of this "solid" group of friends. So "Kill Theory" quickly breaks down into a paranoid, "who can you trust?" crapfest where people are needlessly killed, wasted, and the like because everyone is so insecure that they mistrust the person next to them. Pretty much playing right into the killers hands.

Agnes Bruckner, Teddy Dunn, and Theo Rossi...three up and coming young actors have their talents wasted and marginalized in this movie which just does not live up to the potential of it's plot. Throw in Taryn Manning, yet another young actress who's talents are wasted in this cliche survivial-horror flick, and you've got a film which tries to make it's money with names. The producers are hoping a young hot cast will lure in the curious, who will then be pissed off at the end realizing they were duped into watching this waste of celluloid.

The deaths aren't even very spectacular beyond one guy getting caught in a steel-teeth trap on a boat dock, but the film...which fails at everything else it tries, does manage to do one thing really well. Conclude on a shocking note. Which is about as good as "Kill Theory" gets. It's ending. Beyond that, it's not a HORRIBLE movie per say, but hella predictable, and not very interesting at all.

You may find the first 25 minutes intense and intriguing, but once the first person drops dead...you can pretty much pinpoint how future events will go down and even die next. "Kill Theory" is yet another horror film with potential, that simply squanders it.

Positives:Good cast, interesting plot, great ending.

Negatives:Predictable, cliche, alot of young acting talent wasted, boring in many areas, and the characters can become very annoying after awhile.

Overall:One and a half out of four stars.





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