Choose

This film has one very big thing going for it. Everything I've seen about it seems to be suggesting it is a Saw-type movie, one quote suggests it is the perfect cure for film fans missing the next set of Jigsaw's traps. The problem this film is not a Saw copy. In fact it has much more of a Se7en-vibe going through it. Not as good as the Freeman-Pitt movie (what could be?) but definitely entertaining – as long as you aren't wanting it to be something it isn't.

Katheryn Winnick plays a journalism student who finds herself drawn into a serial killer case headed by her sheriff father (Kevin Pollak). The killer is forcing his victims to choose between two equally grisly, but not always terminal, fates. As a quick example, the opening sees a teenage girl forced to choose which parent should die. Nice!

The film is very deliberately paced. It's far from an all-out gorefest, as, in keeping with Se7en, the focus is largely on the search for the killer rather than giving you Saw-esque access to the kill process. Within this framework the violence works well, brutally punctuating the normality of the typical American small town setting.

Okay, this is far from an A-list movie. The plot is recycled; the acting, while passable, is TV-movie level and the resolution includes no great moments of revelation. There's nothing to shock here. But there are some entertaining moments. Not bad.

Page updated 25 March, 2011