Choose to Live or Die: A Movie Review

Director: Marcus Graves.

Writers: Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson.

Choose is a film from director Marcus Graves, which premiered at the 2010 Frightfest Halloween All-Nighter in Leicester Square (Quiet Earth). Recently, the film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom through G2 Pictures. The film stars some notables such as Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), Bruce Dern (Monster) and Katheryn Winnick (Amusement). Each actor does their best to sell a tense thriller, but the musical work of Nathan Larson is what creates much of the tension. The story brings back the ancient Jewish law of an eye for an eye for eye, or in this case a life for a life, in what is a mostly solid thriller.

Winnick plays Fiona, a woman stalked by a masked killer. Before the final confrontation, several appearingly random people are subjected to torture and dismemberment, with few actual choices. The connections become clearer later on, when a young man is proven to have been tortured and sexually abused himself. Apparently, juvenile detention centers and foster homes are still places of nefarious deeds, as film continues to tell us. Enter one bizarre family reunion and you have Choose in a relative bloody nutshell.

Winnick was excellent in her former horror thriller Amusement, but here her charisma wanes. Physically stunning, Winnick stutters some of her lines, while looking confused in many scenes. Maybe the hard partying ways of Hollywood have claimed another gifted actress. However, the experienced Pollak pulls off a couple comedic facial gestures in this mostly dramatic thriller. Others, including the killer, are mostly on the periphery.

Criticisms of this film have challenged the originality of the material. Choose has been compared to the Saw franchise on some websites and initially there is a connection there e.g. life and death decisions. Choose does not stay on a moralistic high note, as Jigsaw does in the Saw sequels. Instead the film is taken to a personal level. Traps are also absent, in favour of first person bloodshed and gore. This is not an entirely unique horror film (and few are), because some of the conventions of horror make an appearance here e.g. tense music during climactic scenes, shadowy figures. Yet, Choose seems to satisfy that inner craving for something exciting, in celluloid form.

There are currently no plans to distribute this title in Canada or the United States, which is a shame. Some of these lower budget horror productions have more mileage than some of the bigger budget thriller. Yes, this reviewer is looking at you Nightmare on Elm Street redux. While not fully original, nor fully unique and self-aware, Choose is a film with quite a few creative twists and turns. There is also enough tension here to get most horror fans to the quickly finished final confrontation.

Overall: 7 out of 10 (-1 for Winnick not filling the role of a female protagonist, which is not an easy job, -1 for some visual problems in the screener, this will likely not be an issue in the final release, -1 for keeping to the usual 90 minute box, take it farther despite studios breathing down your neck).

The film's trailer has been posted here:

Choose this Trailer

Sources:

Choose at Quiet Earth

This is another good horror thriller starring Winnick, from 2009 (Amusement):



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Posted in: 2011,brandon camp,bruce dern,choose,dvd,Katheryn Winnick,kevin pollak,marcus graves,mike thompson,movie review,serial killer movie review,united kingdom