Nine Lives

This is a typical low-budget British movie: in other words, it's a fairly competent idea rushed into production without much thought on the script. While there's little original in the storyline (in fact, the whole plot felt very similar to 'Sorority House Massacre 2', even to the extent of the flash-forward at the start... except that unfortunately the hot girl from 'Quills' doesn't spend the whole movie running around in a nighty), it does have a couple of scares and some laughs, a few of which even seemed intentional.

I was impressed with the first minute or so, since I thought for once that there might be a new British director with some sense of style; but then it went into ten minutes of tedious, annoying reminiscing by ex-public-school yuppies which was irritating at best and left me just wishing they'd hurry up and die. It also exposed the limited acting abilities of some of the cast who were unconvincing even in such simple roles. Once the main character actually arrived, which seemed to be around fifteen minutes into the movie, things started to move and the rest wasn't too bad until the monologue at the end which basically invalidated most of what had gone before.

So there's not a lot that can be done to salvage the plot or the often predictable 'surprises' (there's a killer in the house, someone very obviously sits by a large window, guess what happens next?), but cut out that monologue and the boring fifteen minutes and it could be a half-decent late-night Channel 5 movie.

And _any_ movie with that girl from 'Quills' is worth watching at least once...

Aside from the bad acting, horrible script, and super lacking storyline, you think someone in/during production would have made sure the kills were at least somewhat more believable. Shallow gut stabs will not kill. And as soon as blood is shown, character dies. It was interesting enough and that's why I gave a couple stars but would have been extremely upset had I paid to watch this movie.

This picture is about nine old friends who are gathered in a Scottish Manor and everyone is happy to meet each other after so many years. Gals and guys join in and have plenty of booze and start renewing past experiences with each other.

Paris Hilton looked very happy in the role she played and I can understand why, she had a very small part and was the first person to disappear very early into the film.

The wind howling through this creepy old mansion and snow falling made this a very scary film until you find out the reason for all the murder and stabbing. The plot goes completely no where and I must say that most of the actors tried their very best, but the story stinks.

Boring watch, won't watch again, and can't recommend.

Despite a minor "ghost effect", there's very little that makes this more than a bunch of people going into hysterics and stabbing each other, or refusing to stab each other, or going on about refusing to stab each other before stabbing one another.

I wanted to like this, but there just isn't much to like here. The characters aren't very enjoyable, with a couple exceptions, so I'm happier to see them die than survive.

When it eventually gets to the final survival group, the resolution is like a slap in the face for making it that far in the movie.

Arriving at a friends' secluded house, a group of friends partying for the weekend find themselves killed one-by-one by their friends possessed by a murderous ancestor and tries to stop them from continuing the rampage.

This was quite a decent if flawed effort. One of the better elements within this one is the rather enjoyable setting here, with the increasingly elaborate layout in the different floors, overflow of rooms and snowbound setting all creating an absolutely phenomenal setting for the events here that not only plays into the isolation of the group but the disorienting nature of the house makes the stalking even more chilling. That also becomes another big part of this one in that the pretty-tense stalking here throughout the film comes off rather nicely with the tension starting with the initial attack in the bathroom and the discovery of the body that affects the group rather deeply being a fine start here. There's a couple of rather intriguing assaults here based on the knowledge acquired from that attack comes into play for them, as scenes of the group going through the halls or down into the basement that follows up the film's best part in the fun chasing in the final half as the impact of the storyline and the layout makes for some really fun action scenes with a sense of tension from the feeling of who's who in here as the possession really takes hold for a frantic, enjoyable time. There here are enough to hold this off somewhat from the flaws within here. The biggest issue with this one is the fact that the film never manages to go all the way with anything in here, as the gore is simply non-existent relying solely on knives impaled in places which is just quite dull both in concept and execution as the same, continuous death scenes just get old after awhile. Likewise, the lack of action here from that low-key nature really stands out by managing to drain the tension out from a large portion of the film by never going all out the way its premise provides the potential for. That as well is the film's final flaw which really stands out here being the rather puzzling premise which certainly allows for a great time here with the possession and stalking angle yet never does anything really interesting or original with it. These here are what keep the film down.

Rated R: Violence and Language.