247°F

As a devout Horror fan, I watch many films of all kinds and sub-genres, and try to make a point of experiencing as many different types as possible. More often than not, I find myself disagreeing with IMDb's reviews and ratings. However, when it comes to this film, I can easily understand why your usual spectator would be unhappy.

Many Horror films fail to achieve the full effect of their potential on account of failing to suspend disbelief, or in other words – even if the acting is phenomenal and the characters are realistic, human and lovable, the presented scenario is too "far from home", esoteric and fantastic to make the audience really relate and imagine themselves in the same situation (for instance, any vampire/zombie/monster film, most torture-porn and even most killer/slasher films). 247°F, on the other hand, suffers from the exact opposite problem – it describes a situation which feels way too ordinary, therefore not scary. Also, if seems very weird and unrealistic for things to escalate so drastically. I mean really – a guy knocks into a ladder, the ladder falls and blocks the door to the sauna while it's on full steam? What's next? World epidemic starting because someone drank milk which was 5 hours past the expiration date?

In a way, the film felt like it was too long, sometimes to the point of boredom. Way too much time spent watching the sauna people sweat to death. However, in a way – it was also too short. Especially with the build-up from the beginning. Having given that much room to Jenna's story, I feel the dialogues between her and Renee were too short, with some drastic out-of-place escalations.

However – I do consider one thing in particular to be sort of an Easter egg for us Horror fan, and therefor a consolation prize. Throughout the film, we see many aspects of the Teen/Slasher sub-genre. The banal rolls of the characters (drunken/stoner jerk, good guy, good girl (troubled) and good girl's hot best friend who's dating jerk) all feel only too familiar, and many of the shots are simply screaming for "psycho-killer emerges from behind-bush hiding and slashes gut". And yet, 247°F is not at all a Slasher. More like a disaster film with some Slasher elements. Not exactly Horror.

Having said that about the screenplay and direction, I think the acting was all it'd meant to be. Same can be said for the cinematography. Also, nice attempts to make the film as close as possible to a single- location-shooting film. I only wish the story would've been better and scarier.

All in all, I can't say I didn't enjoy the film, but I also can't fully recommend it. If you're a devout Horror fan – watch it for the above- mentioned Easter egg. If not – I'd say watch it in order to give it a chance, but I personally won't be telling my friends to watch it.

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.

"I want to go its hot. I want to get out of here." When a group of friends decide to get away for a weekend at an uncle's cabin they think they will have fun and relax. The night of a party the friends choose to sit in a sauna for a few minutes before leaving. A drunken argument turns dangerous and three of the friends are locked in the hot sauna with the odds of them getting out getting slimmer with every temperature change. I have to admit that the plot seemed a little weak to me going in but after watching ATM I decided to give it a chance. After watching this I have to say I should have stuck with my original theory. The movie had little development and when they got to the sauna it seemed to stop and is was about an hour of screaming, crying and repeating the same thing over and over. A few scenes at the end got a little cheesy but this movie is geared toward older teens and for that it does work. This is not my type of movie but I'm sure there are some that will love it. Overall, a very weak movie that seemed to have no point. I give it a C-.

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.

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.