Scott LeBrun Five people are lured away from a New Years' Eve party on the rooftop of an abandoned building, with the promise of a more interesting party just a few floors below. Joined by two party crashers, these unfortunate individuals are made to play games by a stealthy psychopath. This person is sadistic, which is to be expected, but what isn't expected is their apparent sense of whimsy. Our protagonists often spend their time sniping at each other in this ultimately lame survival thriller.Very annoying characters populate this hackneyed, nondescript story, which can't work up any surprises that are worth a damn. The direction is nothing special, and the filmmaking in general lacks any features worth remembering. Some members of the horror audience may be expecting something more along the lines of a "Saw" sequel, but in truth, while the movie is somewhat sadistic it's never overly gory. The dialogue is highly uneven - while, at times, it's actually fairly amusing, most of the time it's incredibly tiresome.The no-name cast isn't really talented or engaging enough to create much interest in these inane victims. One might not necessarily hate them, but it is sure is hard trying to care what happens to them. Even our villain is instantly forgettable.At the end, it's really immaterial how things get resolved; this viewer was just glad it was over.Five out of 10.

Scarecrow-88 A New Years Party on the top of a plush abandoned building. A group of spoiled success types(..rock singer, newspaper columnist, television exec, celebrity cook, entertainment lawyer, high-maintenance slut)find themselves trapped in the isolated wings of the abandoned building after following a riddle to a properly prepared party by a psycho. The psycho haunts the rooms, hidden behind his prey who wander aimlessly trying to survive as he captures them one by one when certain individuals make the mistake of getting separated. Booby traps await equipped with riddles. A list containing the names of the group given an invite are labeled with specific titles(Kathy-loser, Nicole-heartless, Adam-pig, etc)and when each victim is dispatched a red X is marked through them. The killer's weapon of choice is a hook. But, other methods of execution include used an ax splitting the forehead, end of a knife stabbing a hole in the neck, a sliced throat, heart removed from a chest with it beating in the killer's hand(..not elaborated in grisly detail, the director uses sounds, only displaying the beating heart), the back of a victim's head crushed repeatedly into the floor during a scuffle, and a vicious attack with a meat tenderizer. The gore-murders lack bite and slasher fans who watch this genre passionately will find them merely adequte. This is a rather tedious slasher with a lot of the film showing this group trying to find an exit while bickering with each other. The characters like to insult each other constantly, fighting often over superficial stuff..their antics are at times playful, other instances nasty. Regardless, the killer couldn't plunge the hook into their gullets fast enough for me..but, alas, we spend a great deal of time longer with these sleazy egomaniacs which is unfortunate. There's of course a twist(..does the killer have a partner in crime?), but "Steel Trap" is little more than a tired Saw retread set in a building that lacks atmosphere, no matter how often the lights blink on and off. The killer should be creepy, but he's merely a walking kill-device whose motives for committing these acts is embarrassingly uninspired. Some slasher fans might get a kick out of who's *really* behind this mind trap, as the film closes with a warped comic tone mimicking cooking shows. The riddles used in the film are corny instead of witty, leading the characters in a maze of doors and rooms with the killer knowing exactly where to strike almost at all times.

Thursday I can watch almost all kinds of movies without any greater problems, but one of my pet peeves have always been poorly made horror movies. Some directors seem to think that this is the easiest genre out there, and that anyone can make a horror movie, but nothing could be further from the truth.Steel Trap is yet another really poor attempt at making a buck of other peoples original ideas. At first, I thought this would be something of a Saw type of movie, but it is more like a straight forward slasher. Nothing new here.The script and acting is OK at times, but those times are rare and really overshadowed by the sometimes down-right retarded decisions made by the characters. It's really not that difficult to attract say the police or fire department to a skyscraper in the middle of a large city.If you're bored out of your skull, I suppose this movie is better than staring at the wall or re-arranging your sock drawer, but if you've got anything, and I do mean ANYTHING, better to do, I suggest you do that instead of watching Steel Trap.

sammy-fischer I watched this not knowing anything about it. I hadn't heard about it and thought it might be interesting. The first few minutes were somewhat painful. Wooden acting, uninspired camera ... It wasn't exactly exciting. But then : I like Cube, and that had similar problems. Then the actual story started, and from then on it went downward. It looks like someone wanted to take advantage of the success of slasher/thriller movies like SAW and Battle Royale but just couldn't think of an original idea, so mixed thriller classics, and added some blood. If you know any of the "10 little n*ggers"-based movies (sorry ... That's the name of the original Agatha Christie book, and somehow she didn't care about being politically correct), you'll figure out what the ~punch line~ of Steel Trap is. This really just a remake of the original story, but sadly it is a very boring one. The characters are all very annoying and the story lacks any kind of suspense. The inevitable come back of the "oh so dead" killer at the end, the frame job ... It's all so predictable it's not even amusing anymore. I give it 4 out of 10 for a few nice lines and the fact that some of the girls actually look kind of nice.