After seeing KILL THEORY, I was surprised to learn that it was not released widely in theaters. It is a very solid, suspenseful horror-thriller, in the vein of the great SAW. Eight college friends Brent, Amber, Michael, Jennifer, Freddi, Alex, Carlos, Nicole spend one last weekend together before graduating and going there separate ways. They are terrorized by an unseen killer who compels them to kill each other off until only one of them survives by 6am the next morning.
In a way, I even think KILL THEORY pushes the envelope more than SAW because these people actually know each other and are the best of friends (supposedly) and so they have to kill people they are close to, whereas in the SAW films, a person had to either kill a complete stranger or an enemy to survive, which you would think would be a lot easier than killing a friend!
Admittedly, all the characters seem kind of one-note and slow-going at first, but as the film wears on, they all really grew on me and the action is so fast-paced with them having to think on the go that no time was wasted in digging too deep into their psyches. Just enough information was relayed so we know what each character was about. I kind of thought the reactions to the initial encounter with the killer were a bit either melodramatic and over the top by certain characters and underplayed by others, but as the film kept going, the acting got better and found myself paying attention to the characters!
Where most flicks like this usually lose me is when characters start doing stupid things. But these characters did not. They tried everything they could to simply get away, which is what most normal people would do! No ingenious plot to try to fool the killer, no trying to think like him or get inside his head, just plain old "Let's get the hell out of here!". And because the characters became well-defined, you actually started to care for all of them in one way or another and understand them.
The main plot point that bugged me though is that we're supposed to accept at face value that the killer can foresee ALL of his preys' actions and can tell how each one is going to act and react, which is a bit far-fetched. He had to be able to tell exactly what was going to happen over a period of about 6 or 7 hours until the clock struck 6AM.
But it was these innocent young characters that sold it for me. A lot of what happened was convincing. I felt sorry for them because they didn't ask for any of this and no matter how selfish some or all of them had been prior to this, you pity them and their situation just because a psycho wants to prove a point! The ending has a couple of twists and turns, but I actually think that even knowing the twists, I still wouldn't mind watching KILL THEORY again. Good story, writing, and acting will do that for you!
In a way, I even think KILL THEORY pushes the envelope more than SAW because these people actually know each other and are the best of friends (supposedly) and so they have to kill people they are close to, whereas in the SAW films, a person had to either kill a complete stranger or an enemy to survive, which you would think would be a lot easier than killing a friend!
Admittedly, all the characters seem kind of one-note and slow-going at first, but as the film wears on, they all really grew on me and the action is so fast-paced with them having to think on the go that no time was wasted in digging too deep into their psyches. Just enough information was relayed so we know what each character was about. I kind of thought the reactions to the initial encounter with the killer were a bit either melodramatic and over the top by certain characters and underplayed by others, but as the film kept going, the acting got better and found myself paying attention to the characters!
Where most flicks like this usually lose me is when characters start doing stupid things. But these characters did not. They tried everything they could to simply get away, which is what most normal people would do! No ingenious plot to try to fool the killer, no trying to think like him or get inside his head, just plain old "Let's get the hell out of here!". And because the characters became well-defined, you actually started to care for all of them in one way or another and understand them.
The main plot point that bugged me though is that we're supposed to accept at face value that the killer can foresee ALL of his preys' actions and can tell how each one is going to act and react, which is a bit far-fetched. He had to be able to tell exactly what was going to happen over a period of about 6 or 7 hours until the clock struck 6AM.
But it was these innocent young characters that sold it for me. A lot of what happened was convincing. I felt sorry for them because they didn't ask for any of this and no matter how selfish some or all of them had been prior to this, you pity them and their situation just because a psycho wants to prove a point! The ending has a couple of twists and turns, but I actually think that even knowing the twists, I still wouldn't mind watching KILL THEORY again. Good story, writing, and acting will do that for you!