Cornered!

Five people play poker after hours in the upstairs of a liquor store, only to be picked off one by one by a serial killer. Much of the first half is centred around this game, frankly very boring. The acting isn't great, especially Duval as the heroin addict going cold turkey. The temptation to hit the FFWD button was great. Once the killing starts there is an attempt, with some success, to substitute gore for tension. Many slasher fans will feel short changed however, with only one killing near the end producing the gory goods. I guess making a film in pretty much a single location takes skill, so credit to them for trying. Could've been better, I'd pretty much lost interest after the first half.

Cornered! Treats slasher fans like they're morons.

First off, whoever authored this DVD does not know movies. There's a trailer for THIS VERY movie in the previews. Spoiler alert! You don't put the trailer for the movie you're about to watch right before the movie.

A bunch of misfits barricade themselves up in a store with a serial killer on the loose.

The only thing good about this movie is the killer's methods (and the twist on how he obtains this information). This filmmaker has chosen to spell it out for you, not once (once would be too much), but TWICE! The Dumb Decision trope is in full effect in this one, and I think it costs every last character their lives.

Ok, every horror movie has a skeptic. They play the skeptic trope to the Nth degree with Steve, the store owner. He's not just skeptical, he's 100% CLUELESS. You'd think this was a parody, but I'm pretty sure this is a straight-up slasher (even with the presence of Steve Guttenberg). People say alarming things to him, and he just mumbles to himself. He follows a blood trail to the basement that he is convinced is a prank done with ketchup. Two survivors find the keys to leave the store, and... the way this all plays out is too ridiculous to even go into. You can watch it for yourself if you have a masochistic streak. I don't know how much dumber Daniel Maze and Darrin Grimwood could have written these characters.

Yeah, Steve Guttenberg appears at the beginning and the end of this movie. So, if anyone needs their Police Academy fix.

In Los Angeles, a serial-killer with unknown identity is slaughtering clients in convenience stores. The steals the surveillance tapes and the police department has offered a US$ 500,000.00 reward for him.

In a trashy convenience store, the owner Steve (Eduardo Antonio Garcia), his clients Mona (Ellia English) that works with phone sex and the whore Jess (Elizabeth Nicole), his employee Donny Donut (Peter Story) and his junky nephew Jimmy (James Duval) discuss with the carrier Morty (Steve Guttenberg) what they would do with the serial-killer if they capture him.

Morty goes away and Steve invites the group to play a poker game, with Jimmy is affected by the forced abstinence. Out of the blue, they are attacked by a masked killer during a night of terror.

"Cornered!" is an unpleasant and stupid low-budget film with fake reviews promoting it. The uninteresting and dull story has lowlife characters and never holds the attention of the viewer. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Brutal! A Face do Demônio" ("Brutal! – The Face of the Demon")

Yeah, it's somewhat slow. And yes, the characters are exceedingly dumb. I mean they figured out how the killer is killing them but not who - which could be gleaned from the exact same information. And even before that, there is a massive clue who the killer is because information that only they would know is tipped to the entire group and audience.

Things the film has going for it. The killer's mask. Yep, I am a fan of that. While it is impractical, it is still a pleasing aesthetic. And some of the character studies are fun. Mona's business phone calls. The addiction subplot. The kills. The theatrical roaches. The VCR aspect. The ending.

Stuff that was meh. The owner is insufferable and his financial woes are lame. The fact that Donnie was not a long-lost Kevin James/Gary Valentine (Knipfing) brother but just some guy named Peter Story - which totally sounds made up.

Anyway, this movie is watchable. Because I apparently had already seen it, rated it, never left a review and then rewatched it, thinking this seems familiar.

During their nightly poker game a group of lowlifes are terrorized in their own convenience store by a masked killer.

The highlight of this film was obviously James Duval as Jimmy, who is going through heroin withdrawal. He puts on perhaps the best performance of his career. Although I learned to love him in the films of Gregg Araki and in "May", he seems to be starting a second -- even better -- phase of his acting, as seen here and in "Sushi Girl".

While there is little else here that is all that memorable, and some moments seem a bit clichéd or hackneyed, it is not a bad little film. Certainly better than the average lower budget horror film. And it is great to see Steve Guttenberg, a wonderful actor whose time is not yet over.