by: KFear
Posted on 04.19.10 in All Horror Films > Slasher
Release Date: 2008

Slasher films with no twist are just that….slasher films.  If you decide that your antagonist is going to have a large knife, he better have a motive or a unique back story to his vengefulness.  If you don’t have even the slightest bit of physiological twists and thrills within your hour and a half’s worth of film, you’ll find yourself making another tired ‘ol slasher film.  BUT…if you put some meat on the bones of your story, add in the occasional twist, and have a unique killer, you might find that you made a film that’s a lot more than just a “slasher” film.  In most cases, the simple plot structures of an average slasher are enough for some audiences, but the formula gets tiresome for many, and in the end, we need our slashers to be a bit more intelligent and thought provoking.

Cornered is essentially about a group of half a dozen convenience store workers that are trapped in their store/apartment with a killer that is hell-bent on murdering convenience clerks throughout the city of Los Angeles.  One by one they realize that they are locked in the store with this brutal serial killer, and they each have their own personal encounters with him, as short and as bloody as those encounters may be.  The killer does have a motive, but it is weak and hardly justifiable.  You’ll spend most of your time waiting for the kills to begin, and as the story progresses, the kills become more and more frequent.  Can everyone last until dawn when the store is scheduled to open its doors?  Absolutely not.  Will the only likeable character make it too the end of the film?  Probably not.   Will you enjoy Cornered???  I’m guessing…not…

Most of Cornered’s ideas run completely flat.  Our six “innocent” characters each read about the convenience store killer and verbally tell each other how they themselves would kill the killer if they were to ever encounter him.  Well, they each have their own time with him, but the killer finds it humorous to actually slay each character in the ways in which they, jokingly, wanted to originally kill him.  Sounds interesting, but it also makes the action sequences become much too predictable.  This, and many other plot devices will surely keep you scratching your head while you wonder why the writers increasingly throw in and uncover so many underwhelming mysteries.

Cornered contributes nothing new to the genre, but it does give us a welcomed amount of character development.  Yes, the characters are a bit trite and overplayed, but they each carry out themes that relate very well to everyday living, as sleazy as it may be, and eventually their deaths mimic their qualities in the most ironic ways.  Still, it would help to have a killer that had more of a sinister presents.  This guy doesn’t even get enough camera time for you to even notice most of his qualities.   As a result, a few thrilling sequences offer some well placed jump scares, but for a horror film, Cornered offers little else.

Cornered isn’t even a “good try”.  It’s just a cheap and lazy slasher film, and nothing else.  In some regards it is worth a watch for its few decent qualities, but I wouldn’t go too far out of your way to find out what those qualities are.

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall: