Le Piège

Whoever this Will Hoge guy is, he needs to go back to delivering pizzas. This is a mashup of STP, Creed and all those other horrible styles. I had to skip about 7 minutes in the middle of the movie because my ears started bleeding.

Hey guys! I like "House of 9." I saw it at my internship at Universal Music and I thought it wasn't so bad. I mean there are many elements to it. First it's about the core of human nature, the survival of the fittest. It just shows how if money is a part of the story than people get greedy, and can even kill each other. It's kinda similar to "Saw" but I thought it was interesting. I also thought it was weird how Dennis Hopper is both an Irish Priest and a psycho killer (what a contradiction).There isn't much info on it out now except on amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product). I found out that it comes out on DVD on Valentime's Day (what a perfect day to see a horror movie huh?)

Former cameraman Steven R. Monroe directed this little psychological movie that at times was slow as molasses, but, nevertheless, an interesting glimpse of the beast within all of us.

Now, I cannot compare it to Cube, Saw, or My Little Eye, as others have done as i have not seen those films. I only mention them to give you an indication of what is in store for those that have. What I can say, is that I find the premise totally believable. When the pressure is on, our hatreds and prejudices, and inner demons come out rather quickly, especially when fueled with alcohol and hunger. Only Father Duffy (Dennis Hopper) and Lea (Kelly Brook) seemed to keep their cool, but they broke down eventually, albeit for different reasons than the others.

This is not a bloody film, although there is a little, but a psychological one. I was bothered by one killing that occurred off-camera, as i kept thinking the rest of the film that it was fake. The ending was weird, foreshadowing a possible sequel, but, if they do, please get another writer. Philippe Vidal's screenplay just didn't cut it for the most part. I enjoyed the film, but it could have been way better. What a waste of a Maxim magazine "Hot 100 of 2005" list member. Another cast member was a FHM's 100 Sexiest Girls member, and another gave an outstanding display in Eyes Wide Shut. All were wasted here.

**SPOILERS** As if abducted off the streets of London by aliens in a UFO nine persons complete strangers to each other with the exception of the music composing couple Francis & Cynthia, Hippolyte Girandot & Julienne Davis, end up in this large house with all the door and windows sealed shut.

Getting the lowdown to the situation that their in by the unseen Watcher, Tim Carter, the nine kidnap victims are told that they'll all have to stay locked up there for the next 24 hours until the only survivor will be allowed to leave. The nine are also told by The Watcher that the winner, or survivor, will end up getting a duffel bag stuffed with 5 million dollars in it for his or her effort!

The film then has the befuddled and confused persons try to survive the night only to have greed and hunger take over and control their actions and emotions. One by one the nine end up murdering each other, the first victim was the result of an unfortunate accident, until by the next morning only one survived. It's then that the sole survivor as well as the audience is hit with this twist ending. It's brought out by THe Watcher that the agony that he, or she, wen't through was only the beginning of something that a lot bigger and far more evil that what happened to him and the people, who are now all dead, that were there in the house.

Dennis Hopper plays Father Duffy a man with a conscience who tries to keep everything and everyone from getting out of control only in the end lose control of himself. The musical couple Francis & Cynthia get involved with black rap artist Al B, Ashley Waters, who gets a little too friendly with Cynthia that ends up having devastating results for all three of them.

Fashion designer Max Roy, Peter Capaldi, loses it late in the movie and goes bonkers breaking what little sanity that was still left among the survivors. Max freaks out in his attempt to have everyone there killed so that he can end up having and stuffing himself with all the food, not the 5 million dollars, thats been provided, by The Watcher, for them.

The cop of the group Jay, Raffeallo Degruttola, at first tries to keep order but gets so enraged at Al B who's dislike of police, as well as Jay, is so fanatical and out in the open that the two go after each other like two rats in a cage who haven't been fed for days.

There's also tennis star Claire Leevy, Susie Amy, and her forced roommate, at the house, parolee from prison Shona, Morven Christie. These two are so opposite to each other that putting them both together, that Father Duffy did, was like flicking open a cigarette lighter in a kitchen with an hour long gas leak; the results would be and in fact did become explosive.

The last of the group of nine the beautiful and well endowed Lea, Kelly Brook, who's a dancer and refrains from eating meat is by far the most likable and attractive of the bunch. That's why for some reason it puzzled me why Francis had it in for her during the entire film. When his attempt to electrocute Lea failed, after he at first thought that it succeeded, Francis became by far the most crazed of the already crazed bunch.

It wasn't until the last minute that you not only realized who survive this carnage but what the reason for it really was. By the time the movie ended it was shown to the sole surviver that greed and the violence and murder that goes along with it only leads to more greed and that greed will only be quenched when there's no one left alive to be influenced by it.

This film is embarrassingly bad. The acting is way over the top and the writing is very lazy. There are times when it is so unbelievably dumb. I hated all of the characters and didn't care at all if they died. I will try my best to forget that I ever saw this, which will not be hard.