October Horror 2012: Chain Letter

Chain Letter is a movie.  Ok, seriously.  Chain Letter is a 2010 horror movie written by Diana Erwin, Michael J. Pagin, and Deon Taylor.  Also directed by Deon Taylor.


The movie is about a group of friends in a highly technological suburb who inadvertently attract the attention of a serial killer that determines his victims by seeing who fails to forward a chain letter.  He also kills all his victims using chains.

The story is a bit silly, but the characters and acting are alright.  We dislike who we're supposed to dislike, we're suspicious of who we're supposed to be suspicious of, etc.  Unfortunately the characters who are supposed to be long-lived enough that we're supposed to root for aren't very well developed so it feels bit flat.  Also, I'm not entirely sold on Keith David as the heroic cop figure.

The kill scenes are mostly creative and always very gruesome, which plays in the favor of this sort of movie.  I do like that they illustrate sometimes the killer having to haul his victim elsewhere to make the kill because the original location where he abducted the teen wouldn't do.

There is an oddly heavy-handed social message about the faith we place in telecommunications, which given that this is an election season comes off as political and makes me reflexively dislike it.  The movie's so obvious about it in the beginning and during a few moments with Brad Dourif's character, but aside from that they're pretty calm about the whole thing which is nice.  The overall ideas are somewhat interesting, but I didn't realize the true nature of the killer until reading the wikipedia page on the movie which made the last act of the movie feel like it was leaving something out.

Non-linear story telling is used to surprisingly entertaining affect to connect the opening of the movie to the final scene, but there are a few steps to set that scene up that are a bit contrived.

While I imagine the movie doesn't have much to offer repeat viewings it's entertaining enough as a stock slasher with a technological twist to serve the first time through.

Tomorrow, internet week continues with Devour.