Périmètre mortel

When I sat down to watch the 2008 movie "100 Feet" it was solely for two reasons. The first being that Famke Janssen was in it, and the second being that it is a horror movie, of course.

I hadn't heard about the movie prior to finding it by random luck. I didn't even read the synopsis, I just saw that it was a horror movie and saw Famke Janssen on the DVD front cover, and that was all I needed.

It turned out that "100 Feet" was actually a rather enjoyable movie. There was a good flow to the storyline, with little useless scenes to serve as filler. Everything here served a purpose and was straight to the point.

They had some really impressive effects in the movie, and I must admit that it really helped lift up the movie quite well. Especially the scene with the mauling in the bedroom. That was actually some of the most impressive special effects I have seen in a long, long time.

"100 Feet" was driven by a good storyline, but equally so by a rather good performance by the cast. And while they had a rather small cast, there was a bit more resting on the shoulders of the those performing. And I will say that both Famke Janssen and Bobby Cannavale carried themselves and the movie quite well.

This is definitely a horror movie that is well worth taking the time and effort to sit down and watch. And there are some jump scares here and there throughout the movie.

The story starts with an interesting premise but soon goes overboard in depicting some gory scenes of a ghost's vengeance during which time much blood is shed for the sake of horror fans who like this sort of thing. It's well acted and tense with some quietly underplayed opening scenes, but once the ghost starts wreaking the place all hell breaks loose and the story loses a great deal of credibility.

The acting is fine, with Famke Janssen giving a strong performance as a woman forced to wear an ankle bracelet and kept under close watch by a suspicious policeman who was her husband's partner. But the tension doesn't become tight until the last third of the story and then it goes way over the top in depicting violence.

Scary enough but midway through, the story loses a lot of credibility despite the high quality of the performances.

Saw this at a film fest in Germany and its really not a bad horror drama. Marnie Watson (Famke Janssen) is released from prison but has to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest. This is the same house in which she killed, in self defense, her Police Officer husband Mike Watson (Michael Paré).

Plot wise this movie falls a little bit flat. There is no explanation to all the events that occur in this film. Shanks seems to take a very strange interest in Marnie. Even to the point of parking outside her house and watching her day and night. But there is no real reason for this, he has a hunch that perhaps Marnie didn't kill Mike. The acting overall was fine, I quite like Janssen and she played this part well. Although I thought she was very calm considering the circumstances.

Directed by Eric Red, who I knew little about. When I checked it appears he has done other films, things like Cohen and Tate, and has quite a few writing credits. There are some nice well done scenes in this film, a few jump type moments but nothing really scary. There is one quite horrific scene in the bedroom when the ghost of Mike takes a dislike to Marnie's new beau. The effects were done well, though a little bit over dramatic at the end.

This is a Horror/Thriller but I would say leans more to the Horror genre than Thriller. It could have gone more down the Thriller route, and there were enough plot lines running through to create a decent Thriller.

All in all it was an enjoyable film that held my interest, but left me asking more questions than it answered.

This is a great thriller from Eric Red, the writer of Hitcher and many more. On the outside it's a budget haunted house horror flick, the kind that everybody used to make a couple of years ago, before the slashers came back. But this one stands out with its solid writing and impressive no nonsense execution. Eric Red took what was fashionable and made the most of it. He has quite a reputation with numerous classic genre films throughout the 80s and 90s that he has to live up to. And live up to it this movie does. Famke Janssen carries the film with ease. It doesn't take much time till you root for her because the character is as real a person as it gets in these movies. The supporting cast are all great too. Bobby Cannavale who plays the cop on a stakeout outside her house does a "young Chazz Palminteri", just what the role asks for. And Michael Pare who plays the ghost actually acts and acts well under the coat of blurry special effects and not a word of dialog save for a couple of grunts, not to mention he *is* scary. I enjoyed the hell out of it and I hope Eric Red continues to make movies this good.

Sadly, 100 Feet, the title of screenwriter Eric Red's 2008 horror starring Famke Janssen, does not refer to the many legs of a giant flesh-eating centipede—a shame, 'cos I reckon that would have made for a far more original and believable movie than this well-acted, but ultimately very silly ghost story.

Janssen stars as Marnie Watson, who has returned home after 752 days in prison for killing her abusive husband; it is there that she is to serve the remainder of her sentence under house arrest, fitted with an electronic tag to restrict her movement to a radius of—you guessed it!—100 feet. As Marnie slowly begins to put her life back in order (painting over blood stains on the wall, scaring homeless guys, screwing the delivery boy etc.) she finds her progress hampered by the very angry ghost of her dead husband, who hasn't quite finished with using his wife as a punch bag.

Red, whose earlier writing credits include the excellent thriller The Hitcher and cult vampire hit Near Dark, clearly possesses some skill behind the camera managing a creepy atmosphere, confidently tackling some complex effects and pulling off a few effective scares, but it seems as though, in changing roles, he's forgotten the importance of a really tight script; glaring plot-holes and lapses in logic blight this film from start to finish! (I'm not going to waste time going into details, but if you're interested, check out the film's message board on IMDb—plenty of other people have listed them for me).

It is thanks to Janssen's presence (she's still a major hottie and acquits herself admirably in her role), and one particularly grisly death scene that had me double checking the DVD's rating (yes, it really is only a 15 certificate), that I'm willing to overlook some of the film's minor problems, but a talented, easy-on-the-eye lead and some nasty gore only excuses so much.

Next time Eric, iron out the uglier creases before going into production and you might have another hit on your hands (oh, and feel free to take the killer centipede idea and run with it—seriously, that would make one hell of a film!).