MOVIE REVIEW: P2 (2007)

The creative team behind High Tension (2003) and The Hills Have Eyes remake (2006) brings us a claustrophobic little horror thriller in P2, a sturdy if uninspired 2007 film set entirely inside a subterranean parking deck (in the Big Apple) on Christmas Eve.

I need to review High Tension here on the blog soon, because - depending on my whimsy, I suppose - It's either an utterly brilliant exercise in technique and misdirection or an utterly noble failure with a seriously wrong-headed third act. Maybe I should review it twice, once from each perspective, though the film has risen in my estimation over time. I keep going back to it in my head, which means it must have something working for it.

I bring all this up because P2 is rather unlikely to spawn the same sort of uneasy, uncertain feelings. It's a good horror show; but ultimately a predictable horror show. It's intense and scary (and ultra-gory) at times and makes good use of the central location, but the effort never rises to the level of mad (or maddening...) genius of High Tension. Instead the film is exciting to watch; easy to forget.

P2 concerns a workaholic named Angela (Rachel Nichols), a businesswoman having a very, very bad day. A drunk co-worker named Jim just sexually harassed her at the Christmas party, and now she's stuck working late on Christmas Eve. There are some lovely shots of Angela at her desk early in the film, with the dim blue light of a computer screen coloring her porcelain skin. Yes, indeed, she's having a "blue Christmas," and the clear impression given is of a woman who spends more time on the job than enjoying life. Angela's skin is so white, one can guess she doesn't see the sun much.

Things go from bad to worse when Angela is the last person to leave the building and discovers that her car won't start. She gets a jump-start from Tom (Wes Bentley) the parking deck security guard, but it doesn't work. He apologizes and she brushes him off. She calls a cab, but the taxi leaves Angela stranded when she can't unlock her building's front gate. Cell phone? No service.

Yep. One of those days...

The first act of P2 is nicely constructed to create a burgeoning sense of harried (if not high...) tension in the viewer. Angela has an armful of Christmas bags and gifts wherever she goes, and these holiday affectations are like an albatross around the character's neck, dragging her down as she ping-pongs from elevator to lobby to parking deck and back. You get agitated just watching her carry around all that glittery stuff. Her very persona -- dragged down by the weight of the gifts - conjures images of the hectic Christmas season. Rushing. Family waiting. That kind of thing.

And while we're thinking about how Angela is going to be late, and how her sister is going to give her shit for it, things get worse again. That security guy, Tom, is actually a lunatic, turns out. He abducts Angela, changes her clothes, puts lipstick on her, and chains her to a table so she'll share Christmas dinner with him and his dog, Rocky. He's even thoughtfully provided her a gift for the occasion: he's tied up co-worker Jim downstairs, on one of the lower parking levels, so the harasser can "pay" for his transgression. What follows is a yuletide disemboweling.

The remainder of the film is a concentrated -- and very bloody -- battle of the wills, not to mention a battle of the sexes, as Angela and Tom compete for the upper hand against the backdrop of the vast, isolating parking deck. Tom is insistent and wants to be Angela's friend. Angela just wants to escape from the psycho. In charting this very personal combat, P2 deploys some common tools of the slasher paradigm including such gimmicks as "the car won't start," and "the dog jump." Yet overall this film is more like a serial killer film of 1990s vintage than an old school slasher. What that means, essentially, is that much time is spent here with crazy Tom shouting at Angela and tormenting her with his mealy-mouthed apologies and psychotic desires.

The nice thing about slasher is they don't talk too much...

The loquacious Tom finds time to tell Angela how lonely he is; ask Angela why they can't be friends, and even perform a little Elvis number to the tune of "Blue Christmas." Bentley pulls off the role, but talking psychos these days are a dime a dozen, and Tom doesn't really stand out from the nasty pack. He's anti-social, but sort of tiresome. He's an irritant all right (like a neighbor who doesn't know when to leave you alone), but is ultimately more pitiable than frightening. Watching this delicate interpersonal ballet of violence, I realized what P2 was truly missing was a more fully developed subtext (like a lot of horrors made today). For instance, I kept thinking about how Angela is a business person and upwardly mobile, and how Thomas...isn't. I thought about how he might feel resentment that she is such a success...and again, he isn't. That kind of resentment might explain his repeated attempts at domination, but there's much less of that psychology in the film than there should be. P2 is a very competent exercise in horror techniques, in other words, but not a very deep or meaningful one.

Still, there's some ingenuity on display here. There's a great scene involving an elevator, Angela and a fire hose, for instance. It goes in a direction you likely haven't seen before. The ending is also pretty good in terms of visuals, a snow-bound cleansing and ascent from concrete underworld into welcoming daylight. Bottom line: the movie is enjoyable as an experience (maybe a B- overall?) but not strong enough to earn the distinction of being a great (or even debatably great...) genre film. You've see all the elements of P2 before (think David Fincher's Panic Room [2002] meets Wes Craven's Red Eye [2006]). My recommendation is that you see High Tension again instead, because love it or hate it, it makes you think. P2 is a horror movie that will never trouble your sleep (or brain).