Nine Dead

Oh my god. Oh my god.

So much potential. But the ending is just abysmal. Don't waste your time.

9 people are kidnapped and tied up and told that unless they discover why they are there one of them will be killed every 10 minutes. It's a reasonably familiar tale but it's fun watching them try and discover why they are there.

The film features the usual eclectic mix, drug dealer, cops, priest etc. These type of films rely heavily on having interesting characters to watch and although there are plenty of clichés on show, I found the characters pretty entertaining. There isn't any SAW like gore in this film and most of the violence is off screen. I was a bit surprised to see Melissa Joan Hart from Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame in this and she is pretty good in this. The rest of the cast also put in decent believable performances.

As the captives piece together the puzzle and the numbers deplete it all winds down a bit to a slightly disappointing climax. The end scene being one of the most abrupt and unexplained I've ever seen.

Overall I found this a fairly enjoyable if limited thriller and probably wouldn't rush to watch it again.

Communication is the key to the survival for nine strangers who have been kidnapped by a masked gunman and told that one of them will die every ten minutes until they discover how they are all connected. Who of the nine lives and who dies?

I think it is safe to say that this film's biggest selling point is star Melissa Joan Hart, who also serves as a producer. I think it is also safe to say that she is the worst actor in this picture, being easily outdone by a handful of unknowns and Alec Baldwin's chubby brother Daniel.

The film has similarities to other films, notably "Saw 2" (a group of people all connected by a common, unknown bond) and "House of 9" (nine people -- including a priest -- in an enclosed location, getting killed one by one). This made me hesitant and have doubts, but I was soon shown the error of my ways. Rather than watch half-heartedly while doing other things, I had my eyes glued for 90 minutes to the screen. I was, frankly, impressed (though, again, Hart was a terrible casting choice).

I have to take issue with the glaring plot holes. The idea is that nine people have to find out what connects them. Once you find out what that thing is (and I will not reveal it here), it seems odd to me that the killer would know about the people's involvement in that thing. Some of them, yes, but most no. I guess I have to just let it ride...

Not a bad watch for an afternoon. Nine apparent strangers are kidnapped and locked in a room until they figure out what they have in common. One is killed every 10 minutes until they figure it out.

First I'd like to point out that the version I saw from a Blu Ray was 87 minutes long and not 98 as it's said here, I don't believe it was a cut version but merely a miss in the information slip by the company.

Much like it was a miss to suggest that Daniel Baldwin is one of the stars in it, he is technically in it BUT for 9 and a half seconds (literally), more or less an extra in one scene.

Anyway back to the actual movie, it had potential, sure we've seen these kinds of movies before (strangers in a room have to figure out what connects them or they die) but that doesn't mean that they still can't be exciting if they are clever enough, with a couple twists and good acting.

Now the actual idea is in the end a decent one, BUT it's just that all sense of mystery is gone pretty much halfway through because the clues we are given are not so much clues as it is having the motive tattooed on our foreheads.

And the characters are for the lack of better words, pretty stupid.

The acting is mostly decent William Lee Scott stood out as one of the better performances while Melissa Joan Hart stood out for having the opposite, a really poor performance.

Overall though the characters were fairly one-dimensionally written and we are given no reason to actually care for any of their fates.

So yeah maybe watch 'THE KILLING ROOM (2009)', 'CIRCLE (2015)', 'SAW (2004)', 'SAW II (2005)' or 'CUBE (1997)' instead, as they are all better examples of this kind of movie.