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The Killing Floor [2006]


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Full of Great Twists & Turns
Review date: 2008-01-26 Rating: 10 out of 10

I am a very critical viewer of particuarly thriller movies - after reading the first reviews i was a bit apprehensive - but this movie enthralled (it seems that the other reviewers prefer fantasy TV like Buffy) - the acting and casting were excellent , the human behaviour was accurate , the twists and turns & who dunnits carried on right to the end - certainly NOT obvious as the other critic said - an excellent extra final twist at the end of the movie - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !! This is a little gem worth buying !!

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Reviews


Expect the Expected
Review date: 2007-10-28 Rating: 4 out of 10

What can one say about straight-to-DVD thrillers? First of all there's a reason they by-pass the cinemas, although that said "Perfect Stranger," still managed to stink its way onto our screens. These types of films are usually inane laugh-a-thons that are so ridiculously plotted and badly acted that no one can survive the experience with their pride intact. The Killing Floor smelt fishy right from the off, starring a listless bunch of television show cast-off's from Buffy, 24 and Roswell. So colour me surprised that I ended up enjoying, for the most part, a reasonably silly murder mystery brimming with unconvincing red herrings and moderate levels of suspense, even though it gets increasingly risible the more it goes on.

Marc Blucas leads the charge into the implausibly plotted set-up, being introduced in a way that is shamelessly inspired by "Panic Room." Now Blucas has the difficult task of shedding his corn-bred nice guy image made popular by his role in "Buffy," and here he is playing a rather nasty publisher hell bent on being nasty to everyone around him. He pulls it off quite nicely and ends up being the film's most valued asset. By the third act he is presented with some really meaty stuff to play on and delivers the emotional goods above and beyond the call of duty considering he's in a bit of a B-movie. Reiko Aylesworth is sumptuous sex-on-legs as his naughty neighbour proving she has lead actress potential (in better movies of course) while Shirri Appleby is relatively thankless in a schematically engineered role.

The suspense is fleetingly glimpsed but it occasionally beats the drum of the heart when it cranks up the fear factor in places. The music score bears a striking similarity to "The Bourne Identity," and since this is co-produced by Doug Liman I can bridge the connections from there. The pumping score does add half of the excitement and intrigue. The plot itself is quite absurd come the inevitable twist at the end, and the mystery perpetrator is all too easy to guess, pretty much the moment you see them. Although the 'twist' itself is surprisingly well delivered for a second rate thriller, it still belongs to shoddy material. The ideas in it are good, particularly Blucas' escalating paranoia, the dismantling of his bathroom floor providing the highlight, but these ideas are half-heartedly delivered by rather flat and uninvolving direction. If Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) or David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) had been allowed a rewrite on the half baked screenplay perhaps something more intense and disturbing might have been born out of it.

As it stands The Killing Floor is a competent thriller, predictable though it may be, with a couple of good suspense sequences, although mostly stupid ones, and an ending that could have worked but is just too obvious to be a big shock to the system. I guess the straight-to-DVD thriller genre will have to continue looking for a new champion for its cause. Marc Blucas and Reiko Aylesworth were good value mind you and it still beats the God awful Halle Berry/Bruce Willis vehicle "Perfect Stranger," by like a million miles.


Ho-hum thriller shenanigans
Review date: 2007-08-21 Rating: 4 out of 10

This direct-to-video mystery/thriller malarkey stars Buffy's Marc Blucas as obnoxious writer's agent David Lamont, who buys himself a fancy new apartment in New York. Unfortunately, he's not there five minutes before weird stuff starts to happen - nasty photos and videos arriving in the post, strange noises and whatnot - and before you know it he's smashing up his floor, investigating the apartment's past, and hiding in the cupboard with a poker like a paranoid loon. What on earth is going on?

The Achilles heel of this film is its lead character. It's not Blucas's fault, who actually does a decent job of convincing you he's a hard-nosed jerk (a far cry from the boy-scout he played on Buffy), but Lamont is so thoroughly unlikable it's hard to care what happens to him. Not until the end do you realise why he's so unsympathetic, but by then it's just too late - you've spent the bulk of the film hoping a piano will fall on his head rather than worrying about the peril he's in.

It doesn't help that this one of those twisty-turny stories with an intriguing set-up that collapses into a silly heap of contrivances at the end. There are a number of red herrings, none of which obscure the painfully obvious identity of the culprit, and the whole thing ends up making very little sense.

Ultimately, this is an eminently missable film, saddled with a daft story, an unsympathetic protagonist, and a strange refusal to compensate by throwing in some gratuitous violence or nudity. There's simply nothing on offer here to make The Killing Floor a worthwhile watch, unless you, like me, suffer from the same addiction to films starring former members of the Buffy cast. I've really got to get some help for that.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Shiri Appleby
John Bedford Lloyd
Reiko Aylesworth
Marc Blucas

Creators:
Reiko Aylesworth (Primary Contributor)
Shiri Appleby (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Revolver Entertainment
Manufacturer: Revolver Entertainment
EAN: 5060018489070
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-05-21
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 93 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2006
Language: English (Original Language)

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