Fingerprints

Melanie Wood (Leah Pipes) is told by her older sister Crystal (Kristin Cavallari) about an urban legend of a haunted railroad crossing. A bus full of kids supposedly were killed by a train at that site. Melanie rejoins her family in their new home after a stint in rehab for heroine. She's the only who can see a mysterious girl who turns out to be Mary (Sally Kirkland)'s dead sister Julie. Doug (Lou Diamond Phillips) is the school counselor.

This is a low budget horror that suffers from a lack of vision. The kills are not that good. The killer isn't that cool. I like Leah Pipes and Andrew Lawrence is a good douche bag. The other actors are not so good. It's a fine ghost story but Harry Basil is a limited horror director.

I don't suggest watching this movie even when you have much time to kill. It's full of clichés, its plot is beyond predictable and there are major logical flaws. The killing scenes are stupid and funny. The sexy actors and sexual material don't help much. The abusive mother,goofy,affectionate father, the hot sister and the problematic daughter constitute the family. Then there is the friendly teacher, the abusive- psychopathic guy who happens to be very handsome, the good and handsome boyfriend-to-be and the silly and slutty cheerleaders. So there's everything needed to constitute the teen-slasher scary movie, but it just doesn't happen. I advise you to sit and watch The Urban Legends again, rather than watching Fingerprints. The only thing i liked about the movie was Leah Pipes, whose performance was worth much superior movies.

Lou D. Phillip stars as a teacher who lives in a small town haunted by the memory of the sudden loss of a busload of children years before. A young woman (Leah Pipes) returns from rehab to her family home, only to encounter the ghost of a little girl who slowly leads her to the lost children and the reason for their disappearance. That part of the movie is OK, and follows modern ghost movie traditions. But some bright bulb apparently decided to also make this a slasher film, with big boobs on display and lots of blood-letting for the JASON and FREDDY crowd. Th slasher segments all tie into the missing children plot, but they were absolutely unnecessary and damn near ruined the movie. We know who the masked killer is way too early, too. Ignore the cheesy slasher scenes, some of which look like they were filmed and inserted as an afterthought, and focus on the ghost plot. You will be rewarded. The ending is a dilly.

A fifty year old urban legend, a masked killer, and a dark secret held by an entire town combine to form the story of FINGERPRINTS.

A recovering teen named Melanie (Leah Pipes) returns to her family after rehab, only to be plunged into the ghostly town mystery. Is the legend real? Are the restless spirits of long-dead children roaming the streets of Emerald? What, if anything, do they have to do with a string of murders?

While not overly terrifying, this movie does have a few suspenseful moments. Lou diamond Phillips plays the school guidance counselor. Geoffrey Lewis is the town drunk, who just may know more than people think. Also stars Kristin Cavallari as Melanie's sister, Crystal...

The teenager Melanie (Leah Pipes) arrives in Emerald after a period of rehabilitation on drugs. When she lived in California, she had an overdose of heroin with her boyfriend that died, but she was resurrected by the paramedics. Mel is welcomed by her older sister Crystal (Kristin Cavallari) that tells her about an accident between a school bus and a train in 1957 due to a problem in a railroad crossing gate where all the children died. In the present days, there is an urban legend telling that if you put the car in neutral in the same place, the children will push the car and their fingerprints will be printed in the car bumper. Melanie has a cold reception from her mother, and later Crystal invites her to go to a party. When they leave the party with two friends of Crystal, they drive to the spot where the accident happened and Melanie sees a little girl. Later Mel befriends her and finds that her name is Julie (Sydnee Harlan). When Melanie has visions and daydreams with the children and the accident, her mother believes she is on drugs while Melanie tries to discover the truth about the fatal accident.

"Fingerprints" has a promising beginning with a plot with huge potential and scenes that startle. However, the terrible and messy resolution of the mystery is frustrating, with many holes. The heroine, her sister and her boyfriend are nice and empathic characters; however the rest are totally unpleasant or uninteresting. What has triggered the insane killer after many years? How the killer has selected the victims? The attitudes of Melanie's abusive mother are not normal and irritate. What has happened to Penn's car that was parked side by side with Melanie's car when they arrive in the train station? The last scene with the police cars arriving is absurdly ridiculous and senseless since nobody called the police. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Almas Condenadas" ("Condemned Souls")