Nightmare on Stage

Well, last time I wrote this entry I got an error page that made me lose most all of it, thank God it was too long and half of it I cut and pasted to Works. Let’s see if this one goes through.

Quick run-down on my shows. The One-Acts are going well, ‘The Birthday Present’ opens in three days and half the tech stuff is still not there, which makes me incredibly angry when they harp on the actors who are only trying to find their props, which are constantly tossed around. My show is shabby at the moment as my actors are taking their sweet time to memorize, but I’m sure they’ll be ready by the time I need them to be.

Now on to the heart of today’s entry which has little to do with the title..TWO MOVIE REVIEWS!

IDENTITY: 5 of 5

Now do not watch the trailer a lot. Do not read reviews or summaries…in doing so, the entire movie will be ruined for you by those idiot reviewers who give away too freakin’ much. So don’t. Just go and see this very good movie which is a blend of the Sixth Sense, Ten Little Indians, and a Stephen King horror movie.

The plot is: Eleven characters (if you count the little boy) are trapped in a hotel during a terrible storm. One by one they start to die and a key is found on their body, signalling some strange countdown. Each of the characters is well portrayed in a very unique style which makes not a single character all that similar to each other, and once all secrets are revealed, we find most every character is as far from the rest as any other character is. Some people might object to this very separated character distinction, but if you watch the movie and think it over, it will make sense by the end, I promise.

The soundtrack is creepy and the lighting only helps add to the effect, as the entire movie is filled with the dark booming of thunder and flashes of lightning revealing haunting shadows and obscuring vision. Cusack, Liotta, McGinley(a great character actor), Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Hawkes give stunning performances, some so convincing I really felt for the characters when they bore all.

The movie should be able to have a predicted outcome if you pay close attention and listen to all that’s discussed, though the writer purposefully hands out clues that don’t have to deal with the major twists, one of the most brilliant things, as he allows the deducing public to jump to conclusions that lead them astray instead of providing them with no possible way of guessing what is going to happen in the end. A brilliant movie that should satisfy horror, mystery, and psychological thriller buffs.

As for how closely it smacks to ‘Ten Little Indians,’ I’d bash it if it wasn’t for the fact that the writer pays homage to the book by putting the motel on an Indian burial site and even having someone mention the Christie novel halfway through the movie.

The other movie review coming up….