A New Years Party on the top of a plush abandoned building. A group of spoiled success types(..rock singer, newspaper columnist, television exec, celebrity cook, entertainment lawyer, high-maintenance slut)find themselves trapped in the isolated wings of the abandoned building after following a riddle to a properly prepared party by a psycho. The psycho haunts the rooms, hidden behind his prey who wander aimlessly trying to survive as he captures them one by one when certain individuals make the mistake of getting separated. Booby traps await equipped with riddles. A list containing the names of the group given an invite are labeled with specific titles(Kathy-loser, Nicole-heartless, Adam-pig, etc)and when each victim is dispatched a red X is marked through them. The killer's weapon of choice is a hook. But, other methods of execution include used an ax splitting the forehead, end of a knife stabbing a hole in the neck, a sliced throat, heart removed from a chest with it beating in the killer's hand(..not elaborated in grisly detail, the director uses sounds, only displaying the beating heart), the back of a victim's head crushed repeatedly into the floor during a scuffle, and a vicious attack with a meat tenderizer. The gore-murders lack bite and slasher fans who watch this genre passionately will find them merely adequte. This is a rather tedious slasher with a lot of the film showing this group trying to find an exit while bickering with each other. The characters like to insult each other constantly, fighting often over superficial stuff..their antics are at times playful, other instances nasty. Regardless, the killer couldn't plunge the hook into their gullets fast enough for me..but, alas, we spend a great deal of time longer with these sleazy egomaniacs which is unfortunate. There's of course a twist(..does the killer have a partner in crime?), but "Steel Trap" is little more than a tired Saw retread set in a building that lacks atmosphere, no matter how often the lights blink on and off. The killer should be creepy, but he's merely a walking kill-device whose motives for committing these acts is embarrassingly uninspired. Some slasher fans might get a kick out of who's *really* behind this mind trap, as the film closes with a warped comic tone mimicking cooking shows. The riddles used in the film are corny instead of witty, leading the characters in a maze of doors and rooms with the killer knowing exactly where to strike almost at all times.
Review of Steel Trap
