Josh’s Bargain Basement – P2

Films are our life here at Geek actually, really, its in the word geek. Unlike other people we don’t just watch a film a week or go to the cinema for the big films. We live, breath and dream about our passions. Naturally, this means we watch a huge amount of films. Some are great, some are absolutely trash. This new section of the site explores the films we usually don’t report on. The worst of the worst. The films that you will see here probably never made cinema and often very nearly missed DVD altogether. Welcome to Josh’s Bargain Basement Movies.

P2 (2007)

Have you ever been locked in a parking garage? It is a genuinely scary experience. The quiet, dead feeling, the silence… Sounds like a good premise for a horror film, doesn’t it? Sadly, P2 avoids any smart use of its environment and instead picks a story about a creepy parking attendant Thomas (played by the king of creep, Wes Bentley) who abducts office worker Angela (Rachel Nichols) to spend Christmas eve with, whether she likes it or not.

The film does not really commit any serious errors, the acting is sub par, but far from the tragic stuff that you can get in some of these bargain basement films. It also can’t be accused of having terrible camera work or script. Once we get past the initial set up and mood building, the film begins its slow and steady decay towards nothingness. No, the films major flaw is how incredibly average the performances are.

The worst thing about this film was Wes Bentley himself. When you get passed the ‘Eyebrows of Doom’, Wes is not that great an actor. His character begins as a borderline psychopathic creepy loner, but after 20mins he comes off more like a spoilt child than a decent psychopath. His delivery feels like its borrowed from the Danny Glover school of acting, only two settings: normal and ultra crazy. Plus, the Heroine isn’t really that nice or loveable either, leaving you no one to root for. By the half way mark I didn’t care what the outcome was and by the end I was hoping that the heroine would die just to give me one decent surprise.

Oddly, I can’t really fault anything else in the film. P2 starts with a good atmosphere, the film only dies due to the director and writers forgetting the most important step in making a film like this: decent leads. A film with a small cast must remember to focus on getting the audience drawn into the action and this sadly does not happening here. Overall, garbage.

Verdict: There are much better things to do with your time.

P2 is directed by Franck Khalfoun and written by Franck Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja & Gregory Levasseur and it is based on a story by Gregory Levasseur & Alexandre Aja. It Stars Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley, Simon Reynolds, Philip Akin & Miranda Edwards. It is available now in DVD bargain bins everywhere.