wmusiwa
Whilst the plot was somewhat thought provoking the ending was very shallow and does not provide any moral to the story.
Seth_Rogue_One
First I'd like to point out that the version I saw from a Blu Ray was 87 minutes long and not 98 as it's said here, I don't believe it was a cut version but merely a miss in the information slip by the company.Much like it was a miss to suggest that Daniel Baldwin is one of the stars in it, he is technically in it BUT for 9 and a half seconds (literally), more or less an extra in one scene.Anyway back to the actual movie, it had potential, sure we've seen these kinds of movies before (strangers in a room have to figure out what connects them or they die) but that doesn't mean that they still can't be exciting if they are clever enough, with a couple twists and good acting.Now the actual idea is in the end a decent one, BUT it's just that all sense of mystery is gone pretty much halfway through because the clues we are given are not so much clues as it is having the motive tattooed on our foreheads.And the characters are for the lack of better words, pretty stupid.The acting is mostly decent William Lee Scott stood out as one of the better performances while Melissa Joan Hart stood out for having the opposite, a really poor performance.Overall though the characters were fairly one-dimensionally written and we are given no reason to actually care for any of their fates.So yeah maybe watch 'THE KILLING ROOM (2009)', 'CIRCLE (2015)', 'SAW (2004)', 'SAW II (2005)' or 'CUBE (1997)' instead, as they are all better examples of this kind of movie.
meddlecore
9 Dead is a horror-mystery puzzler (in vein of the Saw films, for example) that I found to be pretty engaging. But the ending is just bad.The plot is pretty straight forward: 9 people are kidnapped by a masked man with a taser; locked in a room together; and told they have to figure out why each person is there...with 1 person dying every 10 minutes. There's a Lawyer, A Cop, A Thief, A Rapist/Pedophile, a Mobster, A Health Insurance Salesman, A Chinese store clerk & a young Barkeep. In order to survive, they must figure out how they are all connected.As a humorously ironic personal note, like the characters in the film, I found myself trying to solve the puzzle of where I've seen some of them before (answer: Sabrina The Teenage Witch and that Fallen Skies show).Anyways...it goes along well enough. Had me wrapped up in the puzzle. But you are left with a situation that doesn't really jive with the title so they added a twist at the end. And this twist was totally absurd and felt really forced. Plus, there was another scene after this which seemed to be another pathetically forced attempt to set up a sequel. I would have enjoyed it more if they just wrapped up the damn story as it was...but whatever. I still enjoyed it.5 out 10.
Mark Stone
Just got finished watching this morning, as I'd been looking for something a little more psychological than thriller/gore-laden, and this one definitely fit the bill.A lot of people will compare it to the "Saw" series, and understandable, but look deeper and you'll see this one is actually _deeper_ than the Saw series. It's not just a case of how far you'd go to try to survive, but trying to find a reason behind the crime involved.As for the character list. The actors/actress had their great moments and their horrible moments. Chip Bent (as Sully) was probably the one guy who was perfect in his role, while MJH.. i've never called her an over-actor before, but this was one movie where that's exactly what she was on-screen. A "Ham"... even though I knew she and William Scott were the big names of the movie, I was HOPING against hope that maybe, just maybe they'd kill her off and make the scenes a little more bearable.While trying to stay out of the Spoiler area, the premise behind the storyline is acceptable. What man wouldn't want to go after everyone he felt was responsible for his son's death? However, you have to stretch some believability on two of the people that were kidnapped (the others may be a stretch, but they were a LOT more believable). For instance, the cop didn't know the evidence had been tampered with until MJH said something, so how did the dad find out? The priest? He wasn't even going to tell Christian's confession before he died.. so how did the dad find that one out? Everyone else, any father who did his research would be able to find some sort of connection.The story was solid all the way through up until the final ending. That was just seemingly thrown in there to make the fan say "ooh, twist-at-the-end". There were so many ways the ending could have been done to make this movie so much better.(-1 for the above plot hole, -4 for the MJH and Lawrence Turner overacting, -1 for the ending, and I'll give it salvage points of +2 for some of the character choices, who played their roles better than I think some reviewers give them credit for. Chris Bent, Marc Macaulay, and William Scott, and +1 for doing a SAW type-storyline with a real storyline to it.)
AD
