247°F

Four friends gather for a weekend trip that turns into a nightmare when three of them end up stuck inside of a sauna.

There's not much to go on other than that for a synopsis but movies banking on a claustrophobic vibe have tackled even bigger challenges. One only has to think about Buried, featuring Ryan Reynolds all alone and six feet under. A good screenplay featuring rich characters and interesting conflicts could probably have carried 247°F but unfortunately, this wasn't the case here.

247°F features cookie-cutter protagonists who follow the usual formula but without much savvy and no heart. Of course, you've got the prototypical troubled girl as the main character. Her carefree hot female friend. The cynical jock who is the hottie's insensitive boyfriend and of course, the more down to earth dude who may or may not hook up with our heroin.

Georgia is a country that more and more international productions are turning to for cost-effective shooting, so I suppose they might as well turn to making their own movies. This one has the look and production values of a typical American straight-to-video. The problem here is the story, the screenplay. The movie begins by highlighting the past of Jenna, a now quiet girl who survived a car accident but lost her boyfriend. 247°F takes place three years later, as a medicated Jenna still struggles to get past that tragedy. Unfortunately, the screenplay and direction never make this gripping.

One could hope the story would finally take off once the three characters get stuck inside but this is not the case either. There is no character development, not much in the way of interesting conflicts. No smart thinking and not much drama unfolding other than the three of them successively losing their temper or arguing pointlessly. All of this intersecting with a few scenes featuring people on the outside going about their business. Will the three find a way out? Will someone on the outside help them? Those two questions are what 247°F is all about but unfortunately, the screenplay doesn't build much suspense. The audience is simply left waiting with very little sense of anticipation being built up.

Scout Taylor-Compton is adequate as Jenna. The other protagonists are played by standard B-movie actors probably picked because they are nice too look at. The music score is decent. There are no major faults as far as cinematography... but as a whole, this is below average film making with no heart, because such a story demands a much richer screenplay.

It should also be mentioned that despite this being listed in the horror genre, there is very little here that qualifies the movie as such. (I personally did not mind and I did not lower the rating for that, but think it deserves to be mentioned so that others won't be disappointed)

Four friends travel to a lakeside cabin for a carefree weekend, the fun turns into a nightmare when 3 of them end up locked in a hot sauna. Every minute counts and every degree matters as they fight for their lives in the heat up to 247°F.

The most interesting thing about this movie is that it was filmed in Georgia (the country, not the state). I was not aware that people filmed movies in Georgia and used a Georgian crew, but I will assume this is a cost issue. But yeah, beyond that, not much going on here.

Tyler Mane has gained a horror following due to his part in Rob Zombie's "Halloween" and he does alright here in his limited role. Scout Taylor Compton has also been on the rise since "Halloween", even more than Mane. The reason is not entirely clear to me. She is a decent actress (I enjoyed her in "Wicked Little Things") and a growing icon, but of all the actresses, she seems to get the strongest following at the conventions... odd.

But seriously -- just kids trapped in a sauna. Is it scary to slowly cook to death? Certainly. But is it entertaining to watch for 90 minutes? Not really. This could have been 60 minutes or even 30 -- a good episode of a television show, but a bit too simple for a full-length film.

The extra drama added by insufferable characters making unbelievable asinine decisions, ruins what could be a mediocre movie. Instead of mediocre it's just plain terrible. Unfortunately the amateurs involved in this train wreck of a film did not once attempt to establish some kind of character development, which may have helped slightly. Instead they're just crying and screaming lines of dialogue strung together that seem only to pass the time. Don't waste your time on this garbage, no matter how much you love the horror genre, no matter how high your tolerance for amateur movies... you will not enjoy this. It's simply not possible.

Admittedly, the story here is a bit thin. It can be summed up in just a few rods: three young people get stuck in a very hot sauna and can't get out. Even with that, it seems to take a while for this to get going. A bunch of friends decide to spend some time in a cabin on a lake. The cabin has a sauna. For a half hour or so, they're in the lake and then the sauna. Then back to the lake, then back to the sauna and finally they get locked in. Basically, that's it. Not much else to it. The simple plot, mind you, doesn't make it a bad movie. It was decent enough. I kept watching - wondering who if any of them would be saved, and interested enough to see what ideas they would come up with to save themselves. If the plot was a bit thin, the same could be said for the cast. Scout Taylor-Compton was somewhat familiar to me. She's been a busy enough actress over the years - mostly guest spots in TV series. As Jenna, she seems to be the protagonist - a troubled young woman still coming to terms with the death of her boyfriend in a car accident three years before who accepts this invitation to come to this cabin with friends. The rest of the cast I was not familiar with.

This struck me as a fairly low budget movie. The sets were simple - generally wither in the cabin or in the sauna. Not much was spent on wardrobe. Since the bulk of the movie was watching the plight of the three in the sauna, it stands to reason that since they were in a sauna they didn't have much on - although, to the credit of those who made the movie, there's no nudity in this. It's called a horror movie. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I wouldn't even really call it a thriller. Suspense perhaps.

This is essentially a time-waster. It's not something that's going to stay with you very long, but it's good enough to pass some time with. (5/10)

I had two questions on my mind when popping 247°F into the DVD player: 'How the hell are they going to make being stuck in a sauna engrossing for an entire film?', and 'Will Scout Taylor-Compton be as annoying as she was in Halloween II, April Fool's Day and Wicked Little Things?'. Well, the answers are 'They didn't' and 'Yes'.

The 'trapped in one place' scenario has proved effective in the past with films like Frozen and Adrift, wherein a small group of individuals find themselves unexpectedly caught in a hopeless situation with survival looking increasingly unlikely as times passes; but where those films featured a variety of perils—extreme weather conditions, ravenous animals, life-threatening injuries—247°F 's only threat is sweltering heat. While that is certainly something to be concerned about, it doesn't exactly make for great entertainment, and with such an unlikeable bunch of characters, it's hard for the viewer to care less what happens to them.

Taylor-Compton is as whiny and irritating as everything else I have seen her in; she does, however, seem to have her devoted fans, and I can imagine that it is only they who will find anything remotely of interest in this film, the sight of their favourite actress sweating away in her undies being something they can get all hot and bothered about again and again in the privacy of their own darkened rooms.

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.