Cornered! is a 2010 horror film distributed by MAZEfilms. Its stars include Steve Guttenberg as Morty, James Duval as Jimmy, Peter Story as Donny, Elizabeth Nicole as Jess, Eduardo Antonio Garcia as Steve, and Ellia English as Mona. The writers are Darrin Grimwood and Daniel Maze. The director is Daniel Maze.
There is a local serial killer on the loose targeting convenience stores. Just before their nightly poker game, a group of people start to talk about how they would kill this person if met face-to-face. As they play their game, the group’s size decreases as they keep going down to the store and not coming back.
This is just a stereotypical slasher film with only one exception: the idea of killing the people exactly the way they said they would kill the convenience store killer. It is a very unique concept that I applaud the writers for putting in, but that appears to be the only element of originality in the film. It does have its moments of suspense and excitement, but not of any kind that hasn’t been experienced before by the typical movie-goer. For example, there’s talk of a serial killer in the area and, one-by-one, each member of the group turns up missing. If that isn’t part of an all-too-familiar routine for a movie of this kind, then I don’t know what is. Another instance is the suspense buildup in the beginning. It’s halfway through the film before we see the first victim. Many don’t mind a little buildup, but if it lasts too long, as it did this time, the viewers begin to lose interest.
The only remarkable acting performance in the whole film was James Duval’s portrayal of the drug addict Jimmy. His character was really the only one that demanded some extra effort in terms of acting. It is clear he studied his role well before taking it on. Duval must have studied real drug addicts in order to get an idea on how he must look and act as one of them.
To wrap, Cornered! is a routine slasher film with little originality. If that’s what you’re into, then you should take a look.